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Copyright,  1903,  by  A.  J.  Holman  &  Co. 


All  rights  reset  ved 


Published,  February,  1903 


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TO 

H.    CLAY   TRUMBULL 

THE   REDISCOVERER   OF   KADESH-BARNEA 

AS  A  SMALL  TOKEN  OF  HIGH   ESTEEM  AND 
LOVING  AFFECTION 

THE   EDITOR 


445075 


PREFACE 

Nearly  ten  years  ago  Messrs.  A.  J.  Holman  &  Co.  ap- 
proached me  with  a  request  to  prepare,  for  the  close  of  the 
century,  a  brief  historical  sketch  on  the  explorations  in  Bible 
lands,  which  would  convey  to  the  intelligent  English-reading 
public  a  clear  conception  of  the  gradual  resurrection  of  the 
principal  ancient  nations  of  Western  Asia  and  Kgypt.  After 
much  hesitation,  I  consented  to  become  responsible  for  the 
execution  of  their  comprehensive  plan,  provided  that  I  be 
allowed  to  solicit  the  cooperation  of  other  specialists  for 
the  treatment  of  those  subjects  which  did  not  lie  directly 
within  the  sphere  of  my  own  investigations,  as  most  of  the 
books  dealing  with  this  fascinating  theme  suffer  from  the 
one  serious  defect  that  their  authors  are  not  competent  au- 
thorities in  every  part  of  that  vast  field  which  they  attempt 
to  plough  and  cultivate  for  the  benefit  and  instruction 
of  others.  Several  well-known  German  specialists,  whose 
names  appear  on  the  title-page,  were  therefore  accordingly 
invited  to  join  the  editor  in  the  preparation  of  the  volume, 
and  to  present  to  the  reader  sketches  of  their  respective 
branches  of  science,  with  the  historical  development  of 
which  they  have  been  prominently  connected  during  pre- 
vious years.  At  the  close  of  1900  the  entire  MS.  was 
ready  to  be  printed,  when  the  results  of  a  series  of  exca- 
vations carried  on  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  began  to  attract  more  than 
ordinary  attention  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  In  view 
of  the  growing  demand  for  a  popular  and  authentic  report 
of  these  important  archaeological  researches,  the  publishers 


vi  PREFACE 

deemed  it  necessary  to  modify  their  former  plans  by  asking 
the  editor  to  make  the  exploration  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia 
the  characteristic  feature  of  the  uncompleted  book,  and, 
above  all,  to  incorporate  with  it  the  first  full  account  of  the 
American  labors  at  Nuffar.  Thus  it  came  about  that  the 
opening  article  of  this  collective  volume,  intended  to  give 
but  a  brief  survey  of  a  subject  which  at  present  stands  in  the 
centre  of  general  interest,  has  grown  far  beyond  its  original 
limits. 

As  the  results  of  Koldewey's  methodical  excavations  and 
topographical  researches  at  the  vast  ruin  fields  of  the  ancient 
metropolis  on  the  Euphrates,  belong  chiefly  to  the  twentieth 
centurv  and,  moreover,  are  not  yet  fully  accessible  to  other 
scholars,  their  omission  in  these  pages  will  scarcely  be  re- 
garded as  a  serious  deficiency,  since  the  object  of  the  present 
book  was  to  set  forth  the  work  of  the  explorers  of  the  pre- 
vious century.  If,  however,  the  public  interest  in  the  mate- 
rial here  submitted  should  warrant  it,  they  will  find  their 
proper  treatment  in  a  future  edition. 

In  preparing  the  first  288  pages  of  my  own  contribution 
I  have  had  the  extraordinary  assistance  of  my  lamented  wife 
and  colaborer,  who,  with  her  remarkable  knowledge  of  the 
history  of  Assyriology  and  her  characteristic  unselfish  devo- 
tion to  the  cause  of  science  and  art,  promoted  the  work  of 
the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania (in  charge  of  her  husband)  in  many  essential  ways 
unknown  to  the  public.  The  best  passages  in  the  following 
chapter  on  the  "  Resurrection  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  " 
are  likewise  due  to  her.  She  laid  down  her  pen  only  when 
the  approaching  angel  of  death  wrested  it  from  her  tired  hand 
on  March  i,  1902.  The  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  has  since  honored  the  memory  of 


PREFACE  vii 

this  great  and  gifted  woman  by  resolving  unanimously  that 
the  famous  collections  of  tablets  from  the  temple  library  at 
Nippur  shall  be  known  henceforth  by  her  name.  In  view 
of  her  very  extensive  contributions  to  the  present  book,  it 
was  my  desire  to  have  her  name  associated  with  mine  on  its 
title-page.  But  when  I  asked  for  her  consent  the  day  pre- 
vious to  her  final  departure,  —  immediately  after  she  had 
completed  her  last  task,  and  had  arranged  with  me  for  the 
next  twenty  years  the  details  of  the  scientific  publications  of 
the  American  Expedition  to  Nuffar,  —  I  received  the  mem- 
orable reply  :  "  Why  should  the  world  learn  to  discriminate 
between  your  work  and  my  work,  your  person  and  my 
person  ?  Was  not  your  God  my  God,  your  country  my 
country,  your  labor  my  labor,  vour  sorrow  my  sorrow,  your 
name  my  name  ?  Let  it  remain  so  even  at  my  coffin  and 
tomb."  In  the  light  of  this  sacred  legacy,  my  reviewers 
will  pardon  me  for  appearing  to  appropriate  more  than  is 
due  to  me. 

More  rapidly  than  I  could  have  anticipated  I  was  placed 
in  a  position  to  carry  out  my  wife's  lofty  ideas  with  regard 
to  the  strictly  scientific  publications  of  the  Philadelphia  ex- 
pedition. It  seems  therefore  eminently  proper  for  me  in  this 
connection  to  express  publicly  my  deep  gratitude  to  Messrs. 
Edward  W.  and  Clarence  H.  Clark  of  Philadelphia,  the  two 
widely  known  patrons  of  American  explorations  in  Babylo- 
nia, who  by  their  recent  munificent  gift  of  $100,000  have 
enabled  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania to  establish  the  "  Clark  Research  Professorship  of 
Assyriologv,"  the  only  chair  of  its  kind  in  existence.  As 
its  first  incumbent  I  am  authorized  to  devote  the  rest  of 
my  life  to  the  study  and  deciphering  of  those  remarkable 
results  which  through  the  generosity  and  energy  of  a  few 


Vlll  PREFACE 

Philadelphia  citizens  were  obtained  at  the  ruins  of  Nuffar, 
and  which  through  the  liberality  and  personal  interest  of 
Mr.  Ecklev  B.  Coxe,  Jr.,  will  be  printed  and  submitted  to 
the  public  more  rapidly  than  was  hitherto  possible. 

From  the  very  beginning  I  have  been  connected  with  the 
various  Babylonian  expeditions  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania. The  farther  we  proceeded  with  our  researches,  the 
more  it  became  necessary  for  me  to  spend  my  time  almost 
regularly  every  vear  in  three  different  parts  of  the  world 
and  to  surrender  completely  the  comfort  of  a  fixed  home. 
In  consequence  of  this  nomadic  life  1  was  often  out  of  con- 
tact with  my  well-equipped  librarv,  —  a  disadvantage  espe- 
cially felt  when  certain  passages  were  to  be  examined  or 
verified  from  the  earlier  literature  dealing  with  my  subject. 
With  warm  appreciation  ot  all  the  friendly  assistance  re- 
ceived, I  acknowledge  my  great  indebtedness  to  Messrs. 
Halil  Bev,  Director  of  the  Imperial  Ottoman  Museum  ; 
Leon  Heuzey,  Director  of  the  Louvre;  L.  King  of  the  Brit- 
ish Museum  ;  Dr.  A.  Gies,  First  Dragoman  of  the  German 
Embassy  in  Constantinople;  F.  Furtwaengler,  H.  Gebzer, 
F.  Hommel,  R.  Kittel,  V.  Scheil,  Eberhard  Schrader,  F. 
Thureau-Dangin,  Karl  Vollers,  and  not  the  least  to  my 
friend  and  assistant,  A.  T,  Clay,  who  not  onlv  read  a  com- 
plete set  of  proofs,  and  improved  the  English  garment  of 
all  the  articles  here  published,  but  in  many  other  ways  facil- 
itated the  preparation  and  printing  of  the  entire  volume. 

As  it  was  not  alwavs  advisable  to  ship  valuable  photo- 
graphic material  to  his  temporary  abode,  the  editor  found  it 
sometimes  dif^cult  to  illustrate  the  articles  of  his  colaborers 
in  an  adequate  manner.  In  several  instances  it  would  have 
been  almost  impossible  for  him   to  obtain   suitable  illustra- 


PREFACE  IX 

tions  had  he  not  profited  by  the  material  kindly  placed  at 
his  disposal  by  Mrs.  Sara  Y.  Stevenson,  Sc.  D.,  Curator  of 
the  Egyptian  Section  of  the  Archaeological  Museum  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania;  Miss  Mary  Robinson,  daughter 
of  the  late  Professor  Edward  Robinson  of  New  York  ;  Mrs. 
T.  Bent  and  Mrs.  W.  Wright  of  London  ;  Mr.  C.  S.  Fisher, 
of  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania ;  Mr.  T.  Grotefend  of  Hanover;  Professor  J.  Halevv 
of  Paris  ;  and  Count  Landberg  of  Munich;  to  all  of  whom 
are  due  his  cordial  thanks. 

It  is  the  hope  of  both  authors  and  publishers  that  the 
present  volume  may  help  to  fill  a  serious  gap  in  our  modern 
literature  by  presenting  in  a  systematic  but  popular  form  a 
fascinating  subject,  equal  in  importance  to  the  Bible  student, 
historian,  archaeologist,  and  philologist.  The  rich  material 
often  scattered  through  old  editions  of  rare  books  and  com- 
paratively inaccessible  journals  has  been  examined  anew, 
sifted,  and  treated  by  a  number  of  experts  in  the  light  of 
their  latest  researches.  It  was  our  one  aim  to  bring  the 
historv  of  the  gradual  exploration  of  those  distant  oriental 
countries,  which  formed  the  significant  scene  and  back- 
ground of  God's  dealings  with  Israel  as  a  nation,  more 
vividly  before  the  educated  classes  of  Christendom.  May 
the  time  and  labor  devoted  to  the  preparation  of  this  work 
contribute  their  small  share  towards  arousing  a  deeper 
interest  on  the  part  of  the  public  in  excavating  more  of 
those  priceless  treasures  of  the  past  which  have  played 
such   a  conspicuous  role  in   the  interpretation  of  the  Old 

Testament  writings. 

THE    EDITOR. 

Jena,  December  27,   1902. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
The  Resurrection  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia     ,        .        .        .        i 

By  Professor  H.  V.  Hilprecht,  Ph.D.,  D.D.,  I,L.D. 

I.  The  Rediscovery  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  pp.  7-22. 
Nineveh,  pp.  7-12. 
Babylon,  pp.  12-22. 

II.  Exploring  and   Surveying  in  the  Nineteenth   Century, 
pp.  22-69. 
Claudius  James  Rich,  pp.  26-36. 
J.  S.  Buckingham,  pp.  36-44. 
Sir  Robert  Ker  Porter,  pp.  44-51. 
Captain  Robert  Mignan,  pp.  51-54. 
G.  Bailie  Eraser,  pp.  54-57. 

The  Euphrates  Expedition  under  Colonel  Chesney,  pp.  57-63- 
James  Felix  Jones,  pp.  63-66. 
Lynch,  Selby,  Collingwood,  Bewsher,  pp.  66-69. 

III.  Excavations  at  the  Principal  Sites  of  Assyria  and  Baby- 
lonia, pp.  70-577- 

1.  The  Discovery  of  Assyrian  Palaces,  pp.  73-187- 

French  Excavations  at  Khorsabad,  by  Botta  and  Place,  pp.  73-87. 
English  Excavations  at  Nimrfld,  Qoyunjuk  and  Qal'at  Shirgat, 
by  Layard,  Rassam,  and  Loftus,  pp.  88-138. 

2.  First  Successful  Attempts  in  Babylonia,  pp.  138-187. 

William  Kennett  Loftus,  pp.  139-157- 

Sir  Austen  Henry  Layard,  pp.  157-163. 

The  P'rench   Expedition  under  Fresnel,  Oppert  and  Thomas, 

pp.  163-171. 
J.  E.  Taylor,  pp.  171-182. 
Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  pp.  182-187. 

3.  Temporary  Revival  of  Public  Interest  in  Assyrian  Excavations, 

pp.  187-190. 
George  Smith,  pp.  190-201. 
Hormuzd  Rassam,  pp.  201-213. 

4.  Methodical  Excavations  in  Babylonia,  pp.  213-215. 

French  Excavations  at  Tello,  imder  De  Sarzec,  pp.  216-260. 
English  Excavations,  under  Rassam,  at  Babylon,  El-Birs  and 
Abfl  Habba,  pp.  260-279, 


Page 

German  Excavations  at  Surghul  and  El-Hibba,  under  Moritz 

and  Koldewey,  pp.  280-288. 
American  Excavations  at  Nuffar,  under  Peters,  Hilprecht  and 

Haynes,  pp.  2S9-568. 
Turkish  Gleanings  at  Abfl  Habba,  under  Scheil  and  Bedry  Bey, 

pp.  568-577- 

Researches  in  Palestine 579-622 

By  Lie.  Dr.  J.  Benzinger. 

I.  Topography,  pp.  585-591- 
II.  The  Geographical  Sur\-ey  of  the  Land,  pp.  591-596. 

III.  Jerusalem,  pp.  596-606. 

IV.  Archaeological  Results,  pp.  607-622. 

Excavations  in  Egypt ^       .        .      623-690 

By  Professor  Georg  SteindorfF,  Ph.D. 

Histor}-  of  the  Excavations,  pp.  628-643. 
The  Results  of  the  Excavations,  pp.  643-690. 

I.  The  Delta,  pp.  643-652. 

II.  The  Pyramids  of  Memphis,  pp.  652-665. 

III.  The  Fayflm,  pp.  665-673. 

IV.  El  'Amarna,  pp.  674-676. 

V.  The  Tombs  of  the  Kings  of  Abydos  and  Naqada  and  the 
Oldest  Egj'ptian  Cemeteries,  pp.  676-682. 
VI.  Thebes,  pp.  682-690. 

Explorations  in  Arabia 691-752 

By  Professor  Fritz  Hommel,  Ph.D. 

I.  (History  of  the  Exploration),  pp.  693-726. 
II.   (The  South  Arabian  Inscriptions),  pp.  727-741. 
III.   (Arabia  and  the  Old  Testament),  pp.  741-752. 

The  So-Called  Hittites  and  their  Inscriptions        .        .      753-793 

By  Professor  P.  Jensen,  Ph.D. 


INDEXES. 

General  Index 795 

Scriptural  Index ,         .         .         .         .810 


xii 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The  asterisk  (*)  indicates  that  the  illustration  has  been  added  by  the  Editor  to  the 
material  furnished  by  the  contributors. 


The  Excavations  at  the  Temple  Court  in  Nippur .         .         .         Frontispiece 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania. 

ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA. 

Page 
Georg  Friedrich  Grotefend       .........         2 

From  the  photograph  of  an  oil  painting  presented  to  the  Editor  by  Grotefend's 
grandson,  Heir  Ober-Postkasseii-Kassirer  Grotefend,  Hanover. 

In  the  Trenches  of  NufFar 3 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

The  'Afej  Marshes  near  Nuffar  ........         5 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

'Aqarquf,  the  "Tower  of  Babel"  of  Early  Travellers         .  Opp.  p.        15 

From  Chesney,  "  The  Expedition  for  the  Survey  of  the  Rivers  Euphrates  and 
Tigris,"  Vol.  I. 

El-Qasr,  East  Face 29 

From  Rich's  Collected  Memoirs,  edited  by  his  widow. 

Kelek,  or  Native  Raft,  Composed  of  Goat  Skins 35 

From  Victor  Place,  Ninivc  et  V Assyrie. 

The  Euphrates  above  Der,  with  the  Rtiins  of  Zelebiye  on  the  Left 

Opp.  p.        36 

From  Chesney,  /.  <-.,  Vol.  I. 

Babil,  West  Face,  as  it  Appeared  in  181 1 39 

From  Rich's  Collected  Memoirs,  edited  by  his  widow. 

The  Steamers  "Euphrates"  and  "Tigris"  Descending  the  Euphrates       59 
From  Chesney,  "  Narrative  of  the  Euphrates  Expedition." 

Loss  of  the  "  Tigris "  during  a  Hurricane        .         .         .  Opp.  p.      60 

From  Chesnej',  "Narrative  of  the  Euphrates  Expedition." 

The  Rock  of  Behistun,  with  the  Great  Trilingual  Inscription        .         .        71 

From  George  Rawliuson,  "  A  Memoir  of  Major-General  Sir  Henry  Creswicke 
Rawlinsou."  (By  permission  of  the  editor  and  of  the  publishers,  Messrs. 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  London.) 

Mound  and  Village  of  Khorsabad,  from  the  West 75 

From  Botta  and  Flandiu,  Monuments  de  Ninive. 

Bas-Relief  from  the  Palace  of  Sargon,  Khorsabad  ....       80 

From  Botta  and  Flandin,  /.  c. 

xiii 


xiv  LIS  T  OF  ILL  US  TEA  TIONS. 

Page 
Wall  Decoration  in  Enamelled  Tiles,  Khorsabad    .....        82 
From  Victor  Place,  Ninive  et  V  Assyrie. 

The  Palace  of  Sargon,  Conqueror  of  Samaria,  according  to  the  Restora- 
tion of  Victor  Place  ........        Opp.  p.       85 

From  Victor  Place,  /.  c. 

The  Ruins  of  Nimrud  (Layard  removing  a  human-headed  winged  bull 

to  a  raft  on  the  Tigris)       ........        opp.  p.        93 

From  Layard,  "  Nineveh  and  its  Remains." 

The  Black  Obelisk  of  Shalmaneser  II 107 

From  a  cast  in  the  Museum  of  Archseologj',  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Plan  of  Laj^ard's  Excavations  at  NimrM  (Calah) 113 

From  Layard,  /.  c.  (with  additional  explanations  by  H.  V.  Hilprecht). 

The  Ruins  of  Nineveh,  from  the  North 117 

From  Layard,  "The  Monuments  of  Nineveh,"  Series  II. 

Bronze  Plate  from  Nimriid  (Calah) 125 

From  Layard,  "The  Monuments  of  Nineveh,"  Series  II. 

King  Ashurbanapal  Hunting    .........     135 

From  a  cast  in  the  Museum  of  Archteology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Ruins  of  Tell  Hammam 141 

From  Loftus,  "  Travels  and  Researches  in  Chaldtea  and  Susiana." 

Tuwaiba   Arabs  Carrying  the  First  Coffin  from  the   Ruins  of  Warka 

Opp.  p.      143 

From  Loftus,  /.  c. 

Tell  Buweriye  at  Warka  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         -145 

From  Loftus,  /.  c. 

Terra-Cotta  Cone  Wall  at  Warka 148 

From  Loftus,  /.  c. 

Clay  Tablet  with  Envelope,  Nuffar  .         .         .         .         •         .         -155 

From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archaeology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

'Afej  Reed-Huts,  near  Nuffar    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .160 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babj-lonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Babil,  South-East  Face,  as  it  Appeared  in  1853        •         •         •         •         .167 
From  Oppert,  Expedition  Scientifique  en  Mesopotamie,  .\tlas. 

Plan  of  the  Ruins  of  Muqayyar,  the  Biblical  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  .         .172 
From  "The  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  of    Great  Britain   and  Ire- 
land," Vol.  XV.,  Part  II. 

Ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Sin  at  Muqayyar 175 

From  Loftus,  /.  c. 

Clay  Coffin  from  INIuqayyar 1/6 

From  "The  Journal  of  the   Royal  .Asiatic  Society  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land," Vol.  XV.,  Part  II. 

Temple  Ruin  at  Abu  Shahrain,  from  the  South 180 

From  "The  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land," Vol.  XV.,  Part  II. 


LIS  T  OF  ILL  US  TRA  TIONS.  xv 

Page 

El-Birs,  Northwest  Face 182 

From  Rich's  Collected  Memoirs,  edited  by  his  widow. 

The  Tower  of  Babel  ( According  to  the  model  prepared  by  Sir  Henry 

Ravvliiison) Opp.  p.      186 

From  Helmholt's  Weltgeschichte,  Vol.  III.,  Part  I. 

The  Ruins  of  Nineveh      ..........      195 

From  George  Smith,  "Assyrian  Discoveries." 

Part  of  a  Bronze  Panel  from  the  Great  Palace  Gate  of  Balawat     .         .      208 
From  Birch  and  Pinches,  "  The  Bronze  Ornaments  of  the  Gates  of  Balawat." 

Votive  Statuette  in  Copper      .........      222 

From  Heuzey,  Decouvertes  en  Chaldee  par  Ernest  de  Sarzec. 

Gudea,  Priest-King  of  Lagash,  as  Architect    ....        Opp.  p.      237 
From  Heuzey,  /.  c. 

Silver  Vase  of  Entemena,  Priest-King  of  Lagash,  decorated  with  the 

Emblem  of  his  God opp.  p.      241 

From  Heuzey,  /.  c. 

French  Excavations  at  Tello  under  De  Sarzec 245 

From  Heuzey,  /.  c. 

Marble  Tablet  of  King  Nabii-apal-iddina.    About  850  B.  C.    .         .         .      270 
From  a  cast  in  the  Museum  of  Archaeology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  Shammar  Bedouins,  appearing  at  the  Mounds  of  NufFar,      Opp.  p.     303 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Plan  of  the  Ruins  of  Nuflfar 305 

From  a  cast  in  the  Museum  of  Archaeologj-,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Slipper-Shaped  Coffins  in  their  original  position.      About  100  A.  D. 

Opp.  p.      308 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Rooms  and  Towers  excavated  in  the  Upper  Strata  of  the  Southeastern 
Temple  Enclosure    .........        opp.  p.     312 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Arab  Workmen  at  NufFar — dancing,  chanting  and   brandishing  their 
Guns — (executing  a  so-called //a/^.?<?) Opp.  p.     315 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

The  Camp  of  the  Second  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  Universit}-  of 
Pennsylvania  at  Nuflfar     ........         Opp.  p.      322 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babjdonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Babylonian  Pottery  of  the  Parthian  Period.     About  250  B.  C.  to  A.  D. 

200     ......  ......         Opp.  p.      326 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Lamp  in  Brown  Enamelled  Terra-Cotta 331 

From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archsology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 


xvi  LIS T  OF  ILL  US  TRA  TIONS. 

Page 
Bath  -  Tub  -  Shaped   Coffin   and   Large   Burial   Urn   in   their   Original 
Position     ...........        Opp.  p.     337 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Court  of  Colunnis  of  a  Parthian  Palace  on  the  Western  Bank  of  the 
Chebar.     About  250-150  B.  C. Opp.  p.     340 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Terra-Cotta  Images  of  Bel  and  his  Consort  Beltis.     About  2500  B.  C. 

Opp-  P-     342 

From  the  originals  in  the  Museum  of  Archaeology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Mud  Castle  (Meftiil)  of  'Abud  el-Hamid,  Supreme  Shaikh  of  the  Six 
Hamza  Tribes   ..........        Opp.  p.     349 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsj'lvania. 

Well,  Iniilt  of  Bricks  and  two  Terra-Cotta  Drains  .         .  .         Opp.  p.      36^ 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Drain  composed  of  Jars.     About  200  B.  C Opp.  p.     365 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  E.xpedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Northwestern  Facade  of  the  Ziggurrat,  as  restored  by  Ashurbanapal 
about  650  B.  C Opp.  p.      368 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 

Pennsylvania. 

Water  Conduit,  built  by  King  Ur-Gur,  2700  B.  C.  .         .        Opp.  p.     372 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Parthian  Well  in  the  Center  of  the  Northeast  Facade  of  AshurbanapaPs 
Stage-Tower Opp.  p.      374 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 

Pennsylvania. 

Excavated  Section  of  the  Court  of  the  Ziggurrat  in  Nippur  Opp.  p.      377 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Torso  of  an  Inscribed  Statue  in  Dolerite.     About  2700  B.C.  .         .      3S5 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Treasury  Vault  and  Temple  Archive  of  the  Time  of  Sargon  I.     About 
3800  B.  C. Opp.  p.     390 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 

Pennsylvania. 

Southeastern  Section  of  the  Ziggurrat 394 

From  the  drawing  designed  by  Hilprecht  and  made  bj'  Fisher. 

T-pipe  Joint 396 

From  the  drawing  made  by  Fisher. 

The  Earliest  Babylonian  Arch  known.     About  4000  B.  C.  Opp.  p.      399 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 


LIS  T  OF  ILL  US  TEA  TIONS.  xvii 

Page 

Pre-Sargonic  Drain  in  Terra-Cotta 401 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Pre-Sargonic  Clay  Tablet 403 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Exercise  Tablet  of  a  Child 405 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Pre-Sargonic  Chamber  with  Two  Large  Vases.     About  4500  B.  C. 

Opp.  p.     406 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Earliest  Vase  from  Nippur.     Pre-Sargonic  Cup 407 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsj'lvania. 

Clay  Tablet  with  Seal  Impressions  from  the  Archives  of  Murashu  Sons     409 
From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  ArchKologj',  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Oblong  Weight  in  Hematite 4^3 

From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archaeology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Triangular  Label  ("One  Lamb,  the  Shepherd  Uzi-ilu.")         .         .         .414 
From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archjeologj-,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Label  with  Seal  Impressions 4^4 

From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archaeology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Ellipsoidal  Label.     Dated  in  the  Reign  of  King  Ammisadugga     .         .      415 
From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archaologj-,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Cassite  Account  Tablet.     About  1400  B.  C 416 

From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archaeology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Votive  Tablet  of  Ur-Enlil.     About  4000  B.  C. 417 

From  a  cast  in  the  Museum  of  Archseology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Corbelled  Arch  of  Crude  Bricks 420 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Early  Babylonian  Terra-Cotta  Fountain  from  the  Bed  of  the  Chebar     .     421 
From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Arch£eologj%  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Three  Jars  found  at  the  head  of  a  Parthian  Coffin.     About  200  B.  C.      .      422 
From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Blue  Enamelled  Slipper-Shaped  Coffin  with  Conventional  Female  Fig- 
ures  .......••••••• 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 

Pennsylvania. 

Ruins  of  a  Parthian  Temple.    Altar  in  front.    About  100  A.D.        Opp.  p.       424 
From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

The  Daghara  Canal  and  a  Freight-Boat  [MeshhUf)  of  the  Expedition     431 
From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsvlvania, 


423 


xviii  LIS T  OF  ILL  US TRA  TIONS. 

Page 
Headquarters  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania's  Fourth  Expedition 
at  Nuffar 433 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 

Pennsylvania. 

Hajji  Tarfa's  Garden  and  Reception  Room  (Mudhif )      ....     436 
From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Camel  Herds  of  the  Shammar  browsing  among  the  Thorn-Bushes  around 
NufFar Opp.  p.     438 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 

Pennsylvania. 

The  Removal  of  a  Tower  of  the  Seleucido-Parthian  Fortress  and  the 
Clearing  of  the  Ancient  Temple  Gate  beneath  it     .         .         .        Opp.  p.     444 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 

Pennsylvania. 

Incantation  Bowls  inscribed  in  Hebrew  Characters.     About  750  to  850 

A.  D Opp.  p.     447 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 

Penns^-lvania. 

Hebrew  Incantation  Bowls  in  their  Original  Position      ....      44<S 
From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  Universitj^  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Southeast  View  of  the  Ziggurrat  of  Nippur.     Excavated  to  the  Water 
Level Opp-  P-     453 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 

Penns3'lvania. 

Truncated  Cone  containing  Ashurbanapal's  Account  of  his  Restoration 

of  the  Stage-Tower  of  Nippur 461 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 

Pennsylvania. 

Ground  Plan  of  Ekur,  Temple  of  Bel,  at  Nippur 47° 

From  the  drawing  made  by  Fisher.     Restored  and  designed  by  Hilprecht. 

Pre-Sargonic  Votive  Tablet  in  Limestone,  Sacrificial  Scene    .         .         .475 
From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Pre-Sargonic  Bas-Relief  in  Limestone      .         .         .         .         .•        .         .      4.'^7 
From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Old  Babylonian  Baking  Furnace.     About  2300  B.  C 489 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  Univer.sity  of 
Penn.sylvania. 

Section  of  a  Babylonian  Baking  Furnace  in  Use  (Time  of  Abraham)     .     490 
From  the  drawing  made  by  Fisher. 

Babylonian  Stilt.     About  2300  B.  C -491 

'  From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archzeology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Stilt  used  in  Modern  China  Manufactories 492 

From  a  Pottery  Manufacturer,  Trenton,  N.  J. 

Ruins  of  the  Pre-Sargonic  Gate  in  the  Northeast  Wall  of   Nippur, 

Opp.  p.     494 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 


LIST  OF  ILL  US  TRA  TIONS.  xix 

Page 
Northwestern  Section  of  the  Northeastern  City  Wall      ....     498 
From  the  drawing  made  by  Fisher. 

Plan  of  Tomb  of  Two  High  Officers  from  the  Parthian  Palace.     First 
Century  A.  D 506 

From  the  drawing  made  by  Fisher. 

Northeast  Wing  of  the  Temple  Library  and  Priest-School  of  Nippur, 

opp.  p.     509 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  Universitj-  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Vaulted  Family  Tombs  of  the  Parthian  Period,  Southeastern  Slope  of 

the  Library  Mound  .........        Opp.  p.     511 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Squeeze  of  an  Inscription  of  Sargon  I.     3800  B.  C 517 

From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archseology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Large  Fragment  of  a  Clay  Tablet  containing  the  Plan  of  Nippur  and 

its  Environments       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .518 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Northeastern  Portion  of  the  Temple  L'brary  at  Nippur  .         .         .      523 

From  the  drawing  made  by  Geere. 

Beltis  Leading  a  Worshipper 5 28 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Lutanist  Surrounded  by  Animals      ........      529 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 


Astronomical  Tablet  from  the  Temple  Library        .... 

From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archteology,  University  of  Pennsylvania 

Multiplication  Table  ......... 

From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archteology,  University  of  Pennsylvania 


533 


Facing  Wall  of  a  Pre-Sargonic  Cemetery 

From  the  drawing  made  by  Geere. 

Our  First  Expedition  to  the  Ruins  of  Abu  Hatab  and  Fara   .        Opp.  p.      538 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Markhur  Goat  in  Copper  .........      540 

From  the  original  iu  the  Museum  of  Archaeology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Pre-Sargonic  Bricks  in  their  Historical  Development      ....      542 
From  the  originals  in  the  Museum  of  Archaeology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Section  of  a  Pre-Sargonic  Well.     Bricks  laid  in  Herring-bone  Fashion     543 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  the  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Section  of  the  Stage-Tower  and  the  Adjoining  Southeast  Court     .         .      549 
From  the  drawing  made  by  Fisher.    Restored  and  designed  by  Hilprecht. 

Ekur  the  Temple  of  Bel  at  Nippur 5.52 

From  the  restoration  by  Hilprecht  and  Fisher. 


XX  LIS  T  OF  ILL  US TRA  TIONS. 

Page 
Section  through  the  Parthiau   Fortress  covering  the  Temple  of  Bel, 

looking  Southwest 555 

From  the  drawing  made  by  Fisher. 

Parthian  Palace  built  over  the  Ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Bel     .         .         .      559 
From  the  drawing  made  by  Fisher  and  Geere.    Restored  by  Hilprecht. 

Section  through  the  Small  Parthian  Palace  on  West  Side  of  the  Chebar, 

looking  Northeast 563 

From  the  drawing  made  by  Fisher. 

Plan  of  a  Small  Parthian  Palace  at  Nippur,  about  250  B.  C.  .         .      567 

From  the  drawing  made  by  Fisher. 

The  Imperial  Ottoman  Museum  at  Constantinople  ....      571 


PALESTINE. 

*Edward  Robinson 580 

From  a  photograph  presented  to  the  Editor  by  Miss  Mary  A.  Robinson  (his 
daughter). 

The  So-Called  Tomb  of  Absalom 581 

From  Miiller-Beuzinger,  Illuslrierie  Ausgabe  des  Neiien  Testaments. 

Colonnade  of  Sebastiye 587 

From  a  photograph  of  the  collection  Bonfils,  Beirfit. 

The  So-Called  Tomb  of  Hiram,  near  Tyre 593 

From  a  photograph  of  the  collection  Bonfils,  Beirfit. 

Herod's  Temple,  30  B.  C,  according  to  the  Model  by  Dr.  Schick  .         .     597 
From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Benzinger. 

The  So-Called  Tovv^er  of  David 603 

From  a  photograph  of  the  collection  of  the  American  Colony,  Jerusalem. 

Russian  Exploration  near  the  Holy  Sepulchre 605 

From  a  photograph  of  the  collection  Hentschel,  Leipzig. 

*Plan  of  the  Excavated  Upper  Town  of  Tell  Sandahanna      .         .         .      610 
From  the  Quarterly  Statement  of  the  Palestine  Exploration  Fund,  October,  1900. 

*Victory  Stele  of  King  Mesha  of  Moab 612 

F'rom  M.  Philippe  Berger,  Histoire  de  I'Eoiture  dans  I'Antiquite. 

The  Pool  of  Siloam  (Showing  the  outlet  of  the  Conduit  connecting 

with  the  Spring  of  Gihon) Opp.  p.     613 

From  Miiller-Benzinger,  /.  c. 

*The  Siloam  Inscription    ..........      614 

From  a  cast  in  the  Museum  of  Archteology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

*The    So-Called    Sarcophagus    of    Alexander    in    Pentelikon    Marble 

Opp.  p.      618 
From  O.  Hamdy  Bej-  and  Theodore  Reinach,  Une  Necropole  Royale  a  Sidun. 


LIST  OF  ILL  US  TRA  TIONS.  xxi 

Page 
Mosaic  Map  Discovered  hy  Father  Kleoplias  at  Madaba  .        Opp.  p.     620 

From  Abhatidluugei!  dei  Kunigl.  Geselhcliafl der  IVtssensc/iaften  su  Goltingen, 
Neue  Folge,  Vol.  IV.,  Part  II. 

Letter  of  Abdi-Kheba  of  Jerusalem  (about  1400  B.  C. ).     Front  view    .      621 
From  a  photograph  of  the  Royal  Museums  of  Berlin.     (For  the  te.\t  comp.  Dcr 
Thonia/el/uiid  von  El  Amarna,  Part  II.,  No.  102,  Vorderseite.) 


EGYPT. 

Jean  Fran5ois  Champollion 624 

From  J.  Diiinichen,  Geschichte  dcs  Allen  .Egyptens  (Oucken's  Allgemeine  Ce- 
schichte  in  Einzeldaistellungen,  Vol.  I.). 

Great  Pyramid  of  Cheops  at  Gize 625 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorflf. 

^Papyrus  Containing  Col.  11  of  Aristotle's  Constitution  of  Athens        .      627 
From  "  Facsimiles  of  Papyrus  CXXXI.  in  the  British  Museum,"  PI.  VIII. 

*The  Rosetta  Stone Opp.  p.     629 

From  a  cast  in  the  Museum  of  Archteology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Sphinx  Temple  near  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Cheops         ....      635 
F"rom  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorff. 

Statue  of  the  So-Called  Village  Chief 637 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorff. 

■^Interior  of  the  Great  Ammon  Temple  at  Medinet  Habu      .        Opp.  p.      638 
From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  S.  V.  Stevenson. 

Temple  of  Koni  Ombo 640 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorff. 

The  Isis  Temple  on  the  Isle  of  Philse Opp.  p.      642 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorflf. 

Ruins  of  Tanis,  the  Biblical  Zoan 645 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorff. 

*Sphinx  from  Pithom 647 

From  Naville,  "  The  Store-City  of  Pithom." 

*Map  of  Tell  El-Maskhuta  (Pithom) 648 

From  Naville,  /.  c. 

*Store-Chamber  of  Pithom 649 

From  Neville,  /.  c. 

The  Step  Pyramid  of  Saqqara 653 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorff. 

*Breastplate  of  King  Amenemhat  III 659 

From  J.  de  Morgan,  Fouilles  a  Dahchour . 

The  Step  Pyramid  of  Medum .662 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorflf. 

^Portrait  Painted  in  Wax  (From  the  Fayum) 666 

From  the  original  in  the  Museum  of  Archteology,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 


xxii  LIS T  OF  ILL  US TRA  TIONS. 

Page 

*l'yraniid  of  El-Lahun,  Fayum 672 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  S.  Y.  Stevenson. 

The  Temple  of  Seti  I.  at  Abydos 679 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorff . 

*Royal  Cemetery  at  Abydos 68 1 

From  \V.  M.  Flinders  Petrie  "The  Royal  Tombs  of  the  First  Dynasty." 

^Southern  Pylou  of  the  Great  Ammon  Temple  at  Luxor       .        Opp.  p.     682 
From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  S.  Y.  Stevenson. 

General  View  of  the  Temple  of  Luxor 6S3 

From  a  photograph  of  the  collection  Boufils.  Beyrfit. 

*Stele  in  Black  Syenite  of  Menephtah  (Mentioning  Israel)  .        Opp.  p.     684 
From  W.  M.  Flinders  Petrie,  "  Six  Temples  at  Thebes." 

Head  from  the  Sarcophagus  of  King  Rameses  IL  ....      686 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorff. 

*Mummy  of  Rameses  II. 6S7 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  S.  Y.  Stevenson. 

Valley  of  the  Kings,  near  Thebes Opp.  p.      689 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  Professor  Steindorff. 


ARABIA. 

*J.  Halevy 692 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  the  Editor. 

*Native  of  Southwest  Arabia 693 

From  \V.  B.  Harris,  "A  Journey  through  the  Yemen."     (By  permission  of  the 
publishers,  Messrs.  William  Blackvirood  &  Sons,  London  ) 

Desert  Landscape  near  Bet  'Amir,  South  Arabia 695 

From  a  photograph  by  Count  Laudberg. 

The  Oasis  of  Jof  in  Northern  Arabia 696 

From  Lady  Anne  Blunt.  "A  Pilgrimage  to  Nejd,"  Vol.  I.     (By  permission  of 
the  publisher,  Mr.  John  Murray,  Loudon.) 

*Head  from  Minean  Tombstone 698 

From  Mitteilungen  ausden  Orientalischen  Sainmlungeii  der  Konigl.  Museen  zti 
Berlin,  Vol.  VII. 

*Aden /Oi 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  the  Editor. 

^Sandstorm  in  the  Wadi  Er-Rajel 705 

From  Lady  Anne  Blunt,  /.  c,  Vol.  I.     (By  permission.) 

Khoraiba,  South  of  Azab 1^1 

From  W.  B.  Harris,  /.  c.     (By  permission.) 

*South  Arabian  Princes  (Sons  of  the  Sultan  of  Lahij,  with  two  slaves)  .      711 
From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  the  Editor. 

San  'a.  Capital  of  Yemen 713 

From  a  photograph  by  Langer,  published  by  Hommel  in  Auslaitd.  May,  1S83. 


LIS T  OF  ILL  US TRA  TIONS.  xxiii 

Page 

*L,ad}'  Anne  Blunt  in  Arab  Costume Opp.  p.     714 

From  Lady  Anne  Blunt,  /.  c,  Vol.  I.     (By  permission.) 

Azab  (Halfway  between  Aden  and  San 'a) 715 

From  W.  B.  Harris,  /.  c.     (By  permission.) 

*Oasis  of  'Aqda,  near  Hayil 7^8 

From  Lady  Anne  Blunt,  /.  c,  Vol.  II.     (By  permission.) 

^Mohammedan  Pilgrims  starting  for  Mecca    ....        Opp.  p.      720 
From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  the  Editor. 

Village  of  Aredoah,  South  of  Khoraiba 721 

From  W.  B.  Harris,  /.  c.     (By  permission.) 

*Eduard   Glaser  (With  him  Shaikh  Naji  ibn-Muhsin,  of  the  Tribe  Al 

Tu'aiman,  and  his  Nephew) Opp.  p.      722 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  the  Editor. 

Castle  at  Shibam  in  Hadhramot 723 

From   T.  and   Mrs.  T.  Bent,  "Southern   Arabia."     (By  permission   of    Mrs. 
Mabel  V.  A.  Bent,  who  took  the  photograph.) 

South  Arabian  Wadi  and  Castle  (a  few  miles  from  Makalla)  .         .         .725 
From  a  photograph  by  Count  Landberg. 

Bronze  Tablet  with  Sabean  Inscription  (From  'Amran)  .         .         .731 

From  Corpus  Inscriplionum  Semi/icaritm,  Vol.  I.,  Part  IV.  ;  fasciculus  2. 

Granite  Range  of  Jebel  Shammar  (Effect  of  Mirage).     In  the  Back- 
ground the  Mountains  Aja  and  Selma,  "the  Gate  of  Ancestors  "  of  the 

Inscriptions  of  Gudea 739 

From  Lady  Anne  Blunt,  /.  f..  Vol.  II.     (By  permission.) 

*Camel  Market  at  Aden,  with  Mountains  in  Background       .        Opp.  p.      742 
From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  the  Editor. 

*Inside  of  Harbor  of  Maskat  with  Castle  at  Entrance   .         .         .         -744 
From  a  photograph  by  Mr.  Clarence  S.  Fisher,  architect  of  the  Babylonian 
Expedition  of  the  Universitj-  of  Pennsylvania. 

Minean   Inscription  from   El-'Ola  (Midian),  mentioning  two  women 
Levites  (=Eut.  55) 749 

From  J.  H.  Mordtmann,  Beitrage  zur  Minaischen  Epigraphik. 


THE  HITTITES. 


*W.  Wright 754 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  his  widow. 

Hittite  Inscription  from  Hamath 755 

From  W.Wright,   "The  Empire  of  the  Hittites,''  second  edition.     (By  per- 
mission of  the  publishers,  Messrs  James  Nisbet  &  Co.,  London  ) 

Hittite  Bowl  from  Babylon        .         .         .         . , 757 

From  W.  Wright,  /.  c.     (By  permission.) 

The  Hittite  God  of  the  Sky  (Stele  in  dolerite,  excavated  by  Dr.  Kol- 
dewey  in  the  palace  of  Nebuchadrezzar  at  Babylon,  in  1S99).        Opp.  p.      75S 

From  Wissenschaftliche  Verbffentlichungen  der  DeuUchen  Orienl-CeselUchaft, 

Heft  I. 


xxiv  L IS  T  OF  ILL  US TRA  TIONS. 

Page 
Sculptures  and  Inscriptions  near  Ivriz 762 

From  Recueil  de  Travaux  relatifs  h  la  Philologie  el  a  V Archeologie  Egypliennes 
el  Assyn'ennes,  Vol.  XIV. 

The   Pseudo-Sesostris  (Carved  on   the  rock  in  the  pass  of  Karabel) 

OPP-  P-      762 

From  W.  Wright,  /.  c.     (By  permission.) 

Hittite  Inscription  on  a  Bowl  from  Babylon  (Conip.  p.  6)       .         .         .      767 
From  W.  Wright,  /.  c.     (By  permission.) 

Bilingual  Inscription  on  the  Silver  Boss  of  Tarkondemos        .         .         .      769 
From  the  "Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archeology,"  Vol.  VII. 

The  Inscribed  Lion  of  Mar  'ash  (Now  in  the  Imperial  Ottoman  Museum, 

Constantinople) Opp.  p.      777 

From  W.  Wright,  /.  c.     (By  permission.) 

*Hittite  Relief,  found  near  Malatya  in  1894  (Now  in  the  Imperial  Otto- 
man Museum,  Constantinople) opp.  p.      779 

From  a  photograph  in  the  possession  of  the  IJditor. 


MAPS. 

(in  the  pocket  at  the  end  of  the  book.) 

No.  I.  Western  Asia  (with  Plan  of  Ancient  Jerusalem,  according  to  J. 
Benzinger) 
Drawn  by  L.  Hirsch,  architect,  Jena,  from  material  furnished  by  the  Editor. 

No.  2.  Plan  of  Babylon,  according  to  R.  Koldewey. 

Drawn  by  L.  Hirsch,  architect,  Jena,  according  to  the  drawing  published  in 
Friedrich  Delitzsch,  Babylon,  second  edition,  Leipzig,  1901. 

No.  3.  Egypt. 

Drawn    by  Hubert    Kohler,   Graph.   Art  Institute,   Munich,   from    material 
furnished  by  the  Editor. 

No.  4.  Arabia. 

Drawn    by  Hubert  Kohler,   Graph.   Art    Institute,   Munich,   from  material 
furnished  by  Professor  Hommel. 


THE    RESURRECTION 

OF 

ASSYRIA    AND    BABYLONIA 


fY     y^.    yro^'/em^c/ 


THE   RESURRECTION     OF    ASSYRIA    AND 
BABYLONIA 


BY     PROFESSOR     H. 


HILPRECHT,     PH.D.,     D.D.,    LL.D. 


The  history  of  the  exploration  of  Assyria  and  Babvlonia 
and  of  the  excavation  of  its  ruined  cities  is  a  peculiar  one.     It 

is  a  history  so  tull  of 
dramatic  effects  and 
genuine  surprises, 
and  at  the  same  time 
so  unique  and  far- 
reaching  in  its  results 
and  bearings  upon 
so  many  different 
branches  of  science, 
that  it  will  always 
read  more  like  a 
thrilling  romance 
penned  by  the  skil- 
ful hand  of  a  gifted 
writer  endowed  with 
an  extraordinary 
power  of  imagina- 
tion than  like  a  plain 
and  sober  presenta- 
tion of  actual  facts 
and  events. 
Nineveh  and  Babylon  I  What  illustrious  names  and 
prominent  types  of  human  strength,  intellectual  power,  and 
loftv  aspiration  ;  but  also  what  terrible  examples  of  atrocious 
deeds,  of  lack  of  restraint,  of  moral  corruption,  and  ultimate 


In  the  Trenches  ul  Nutlar 


4  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

downfall !  "  Empty,  and  void,  and  waste  "  (Nah,  2  :  10) ; 
when  "  flocks  lie  down  in  the  midst  of  her  "  (Zeph.  2  :  14)  ; 
when  "  the  gates  of  the  rivers  shall  be  opened,  and  the  palace 
shall  be  dissolved  "  (Nah.  2  :  6)  —  was  the  fate  of  the  queen 
in  the  North  ;  and  "  How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  O 
Lucifer,  son  of  the  morning  !  how  art  thou  cut  down  to  the 
ground,  which  didst  weaken  the  nations  "  (Is.  14:  12)  — 
rings  like  a  mourning  wail  through  Babylon's  crumbling 
walls,  and  like  the  mocking  echo  of  the  prophetic  curse  from 
the  shattered  temples  in  the  South. 

Ignorant  peasants  draw  their  primitive  ploughs  over  the 
ruined  palaces  of  Qoyunjuk  and  Khorsabad  ;  roaming  Be- 
douins pasture  their  herds  on  the  grass-covered  slopes  of 
Nimrud  and  Qal'at  Shirgat  ;  Turkish  garrisons  and  modern 
villages  crown  the  summits  of  Erbil  and  Nebi  Yunus. 
Nothing  reminds  the  traveller  of  the  old  Assyrian  civiliza- 
tion but  formless  heaps  and  conical  mounds.  The  solitude 
and  ut^er  devastation  which  characterize  Babylonia  in  her 
present  aspect  are  even  more  impressive  and  appalling. 
The  whole  country  from  'Aqarquf  to  Qorna  looks  "  as  when 
God  overthrew  Sodom  and  Gomorrah"  (Is.  13:  19;  Jer, 
50  :  40).  The  innumerable  canals  which  in  bygone  days, 
like  so  many  nourishing  veins,  crossed  the  rich  alluvial  plain, 
bringing  life  and  jov  and  wealth  to  every  village  and  field, 
are  choked  up  with  rubbish  and  earth.  Unattended  by 
industrious  hands  and  no  longer  fed  by  the  Euphrates  and 
Tigris,  they  are  completely  "  dried  up  "  —  "a  drought  is 
upon  the  waters  of  Babylon"  (Jer.  50:38).  But  their 
lofty  embankments,  like  a  perfect  network,  "  stretching  on 
every  side  in  long  lines  until  they  are  lost  in  the  hazy  dis- 
tance, or  magnified  by  the  mirage  into  mountains,  still  defy 
the  hand  of  time,"  bearing  witness  to  the  great  skill  and 
diligent  labor  which  once  turned  these  barren  plains  into 
one  luxuriant  garden.  The  proverbial  fertility  and  prosper- 
ity of  Babylonia,  which   excited   the  admiration  of  classical 


DURING  19TH    CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND   BABYLONIA         O 

writers,  have  long  disappeared.  "  Her  cities  are  a  desola- 
tion, a  dry  land,  and  a  wilderness"  (Jer.  51  :43).  The  soil 
is  parched  and  the  ground  is  covered  with  fine  sand,  some- 
times sparingly  clad  with  ^arid  and  serim,  qubbar^  and  tarfa^ 
and  other  low  shrubs  and  plants  of  the  desert. 

And  yet  this  is  but  one  side  —  and  not  the  most  gloomy 
—  of  Chaldea's  present  cheerless  condition.  "  The  sea  is 
come  up  upon  Babylon :  she  is  covered  with  the  multitudes  of 
the  waves  thereof"  (Jer.  51  -.42),  says  the  Old  Testament 


The  -Ak-i  Mai-hc^  lu-.ir  Nutiar 


seer,  in  his  terse  and  graphic  description  of  the  future  state 
of  the  unfortunate  country.  In  the  autumn  and  winter 
Babylonia  is  a  "  desert  of  sand,"  but  during  spring  and 
summer  she  is  almost  a  continuous  marsh,  a  veritable 
"desert  of  the  sea"  (Is.  21:1).  While  the  inundations 
prevail  a  dense  vegetation  springs  from  the  stagnant  waters. 
Large  flocks  of  birds  with  brilliant  plumage,  "pelicans  and 
cormorants  sail  about  in  the  undisputed  possession  of  their 
safe  and  tranquil  retreats."  Turtles  and  snakes  glide 
swiftly  through  the  lagoons,  while  millions  of  green  little 
frogs  are  seated  on  the  bending  rushes.  Ugly  buflaloes 
are  struggling  and  splashing    amongst    the  tall    reeds  and 


b  EXI'LOliATJOys   IN   BIHLK  LANDS 

coarse  grasses,  "  their  unwieldy  bodies  often  entirely  con- 
cealed under  water  and  their  hideous  heads  just  visible  upon 
the  surface."  Wild  animals,  boars  and  hyenas,  jackals  and 
wolves,  and  an  occasional  lion,  infest  the  jungles.  Here 
and  there  a  small  plot  of  ground,  a  shallow  island,  a  high- 
towering  ruin,  bare  of  every  sign  of  vegetation,  ana  towards 
the  north  large  elevated  tracts  of  barren  soil  covered  with 
fragments  of  brick  and  glass  and  stone  appear  above  the 
horizon  of  these  pestiferous  marshes.  Half-naked  men, 
women,  and  children,  almost  black  from  constant  exposure 
to  the  sun,  inhabit  these  desolate  regions.  Filthy  huts  of 
reeds  and  mats  are  their  abodes  during  the  night ;  in  long 
pointed  boats  of  the  same  material  they  skim  by  day  over 
the  waters,  pasturing  their  flocks,  or  catching  fish  with  the 
spear.  To  sustain  their  life,  they  cultivate  a  little  rice, 
barley,  and  maize,  on  the  edges  of  the  inundations.  Gen- 
erally good-natured  and  humorous  like  children,  these 
Ma'dan  tribes  get  easily  excited,  and  at  the  slightest  provo- 
cation are  ready  to  fight  with  each  other.  Practicing  the 
vices  more  than  the  virtues  of  the  Arab  race,  extremely 
ignorant  and  superstitious,  they  live  in  the  most  primi- 
tive state  of  barbarism  and  destitution,  despised  by  the 
Bedouins  of  the  desert,  who  frequently  drive  their  cattle  and 
sheep  away  and  plunder  their  little  property  during  the 
winter. 

Restlessly  shifting  nomads  in  the  north  and  ignorant 
swamp  dwellers  in  the  south  have  become  the  legitimate 
heirs  of  Asshurand  Babel.  What  contrast  between  ancient 
civilization  and  modern  degeneration  !  The  mighty  kings 
of  yore  have  passed  away,  their  empires  were  shattered, 
their  countries  destroyed.  Nineveh  and  Babylon  seemed 
completely  to  have  vanished  from  the  earth.  Hundreds  of 
vears  were  necessary  to  revive  the  interest  in  their  history 
and  to  determine  merely  their  sites,  while  the  exploration 
of  their  principal  ruins,  the  deciphering  of  their  inscriptions, 


DURING   Iftr/f   CEyTUftY :   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA         7 

and  the  restoration  of  their  Hterature  and  art  were  achieved 
only  in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  road  was 
long,  the  process  slow,  and  many  persons  and  circumstances 
combined  to  bring  about  the  final  result. 

I 

THE    REDISCOVERY    OF   NINEVEH    AND    BABYLON 

NINEVEH 

Nineveh,  the  capital  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  owed  its 
greatness  and  domineering  influence  exclusively  to  the  con- 
quering spirit  of  its  rulers  and  the  military  glory  and  prow- 
ess of  its  armies.  As  soon  as  the  latter  had  been  routed, 
her  influence  ceased,  the  city  fell,  never  to  rise  again,  and 
its  very  site  was  quickly  forgotten  among  the  nations. 
When  two  hundred  years  later  Xenophon  and  his  ten  thou- 
sand Greeks  fought  their  way  through  the  wilderness  and 
mountains  to  the  Black  Sea,  they  passed  the  ruins  of  Nine- 
veh without  even  mentioning  her  by  name.  But  a  vague 
local  tradition,  always  an  important  factor  in  the  East,  con- 
tinued to  linger  around  the  desolate  region  between  Mosul 
and  the  mouth  of  the  Upper  Zab,  where  the  final  drama 
had  been  enacted. 

Benjamin  of  Tudela,  a  learned  Spanish  Jew,  who  trav- 
elled to  Palestine  and  the  districts  of  the  Euphrates  and 
Tigris  in  the  twelfth  century,  about  the  time  w^hen  Rabbi 
Pethahiah  of  Ratisbon  visited  Mesopotamia,  had  no  dif- 
ficulty in  locating  the  actual  position  of  Nineveh.  In 
speaking  of  Mosul  he  says  :  "  This  city,  situated  on  the 
Tigris,  is  connected  with  ancient  Nineveh  by  a  bridge.  It 
is  true,  Nineveh  lies  now  in  utter  ruins,  but  numerous 
villages  and  small  towns  occupy  its  former  space."* 

^  Comp.  Ithierarium  Beniamini   Tudelensis  {^ex  Hebraico  Latinum  fac- 
tum Bened.  Aria  Montana  interpreted,  Antwerp,  1575,  p.  58, 


8  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

The  German  physician,  Leonhart  Rauwolff,  who  spent 
several  days  in  Mosul  at  the  beginning  of  1575,  writes  ^  in 
his  attractive  quaint  style  with  reference  to  a  high  round 
hill  directly  outside  the  city  (apparently  Ooyunjuk)  :  ^  "It 
was  entirely  honevcombed,  being  inhabited  by  poor  people, 
whom  I  often  saw  crawling  out  and  in  in  large  numbers, 
like  ants  in  their  heap.  At  that  place  and  in  the  region 
hereabout  years  ago  the  mighty  city  of  Nineveh  was  situated. 
Originally  built  by  Asshur,  it  was  for  a  time  the  capital  of 
Assyria  under  the  rulers  of  the  first  monarchy  down  to 
Sennacherib  and  his  sons."  ^ 

Sir  Anthony  Shirley,  who  sailed  to  the  East  at  the  close 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  is  equally  positive  :  "  Nineve,  that 
which  God  Himself  calleth  That  great  Citie,  hath  not  one 
stone  standing  which  may  give  memory  of  the  being  of  a 
towne.  One  English  mile  from  it  is  a  place  called  Mosul, 
a  small  thing,  rather  to  be  a  witnesse  of  the  other's  might- 

^  In  his  Itinerarium  or  Rayssbuchlein,  which  appeared  in  Laugingen, 
1583,  the  author  writes  his  name  either  Rauwolf,  RauwolfF,  or  Rauchwolff, 
the  middle  being  the  most  frequent  of  all.  Interwoven  with  allerhatidt  wuti- 
derbarliche  geschicht  und  Historien,  die  den  gu'therzigen  leser  erlustigen 
und  hoheren  sachen  nach  zudenken  auffmundtern  soikfi,  this  book  contains 
much  valuable  information  as  to  what  RauwolfF  has  seen  in  the  Orient  dur- 
ing the  three  years  of  his  perilous  journey,  which  lasted  from  May  15,  1573, 
to  February  12,  1576.  Of  especial  importance  are  his  observations  on  the 
flora  of  the  regions  traversed,  a  subject  on  which  he  speaks  with  greater 
authority. 

^  Comp.  the  statement  of  Tavernier,  quoted  on  p.   10. 

^  P.  244  :  Sonst  ersahe  ich  auch  ausserhalb  gleich  vor  der  Stadt  ein 
hohen  runden  Bihei,  der  schier  gantz  durchgraben  und  von  armen  leuten 
bezvohnet  tvirt,  zvie  ichs  dann  offtermah  hab  in  grosser  anzahl  (ah  die 
Ohnmaysen  in  irem  hauffen")  sehen  auss  und  einkriechen.  An  der  stet  und  in 
der  gegne  hierumb,  ist  vor  Jar  en  gelegen  die  mechtige  Statt  Ninive,  welche 
{yon  Assur  erstlich  erbawei)  unter  den  Potentaten  der  erst  en  Monarchic  eine 
zeitlang  hiss  auf  den  Sennacherib  und  seine  Sine  die  Hauptstatt  in  Assyrien 
gewesen,  etc.  Comp.,  also,  p.  214  :  Mossel  so  vor  Jar  en  Ninive  gehais- 
sen. 


DURING  19TH    CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA         9 

inesse  and  God's  judgement,  than  of  any  fashion  of  mag- 
nificence in  it  selfe,"  ^ 

From  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  we  quote 
two  other  witnesses,  John  Cartwright,  an  Enghsh  traveller, 
and  Pietro  della  Valle,  an  Italian  nobleman,  the  latter  being 
satisfied  with  the  general  statement  :  "  Mousul,  where  pre- 
viously Nineveh  stood,"  ^^  the  former  entering  into  certain 
details  of  the  topography  of  the  ruins,  which,  notwithstand- 
ing his  assurance  to  the  contrary,  he  cannot  have  examined 
very  thoroughly.  As  a  first  attempt  at  drawing  some  kind 
of  a  picture  of  the  city  on  the  basis  of  personal  observation, 
legendary  information  from  the  natives,  and  a  study  of  the 
ancient  sources,  his  words  may  deserve  a  certain  attention  : 
"We  set  forward  toward  Mosul,  a  very  antient  towne  in 
this  countrey,  .  .  .  and  so  pitched  on  the  bankes  of  the  river 
Tigris.  Here  in  these  plaines  of  Assiria  and  on  the  bankes 
of  the  Tigris,  and  in  the  region  of  Eden,  was  Ninevie  built 
bv  Nimrod,  but  finished  by  Ninus.  It  is  agreed  by  all 
prophane  writers,  and  confirmed  by  the  Scriptures  that  this 
citty  exceeded  all  other  citties  in  circuit,  and  answerable 
magnificence.  For  it  seems  by  the  ruinous  foundation 
(which  I  thoroughly  viewed)  that  it  was  built  with  four 
sides,  but  not  equall  or  square  ;  for  the  two  longer  sides 
had  each  of  them  (as  we  gesse)  an  hundredth  and  fifty  fur- 
longs, the  two  shorter  sides,  ninety  furlongs,  which  amount- 
eth  to  foure  hundred  and  eighty  furlongs  of  ground,  which 
makes  three  score  miles,  accounting  eight  furlongs  to  an 
Italian  mile.  The  walls  whereof  were  an  hundredth  foote 
upright,  and  had  such  a  breadth,  as  three  Chariots  might 

1  Comp.  "His  Relation  of  His  Travels  into  Persia,"  London,  1613,  p. 
21,  partly  quoted  by  Felix  Jones  in  "  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society," 
vol.  XV.,  p.  333,  footnote  3;  and  the  Dutch  edition.  Ley  den,  1706,  p.   10. 

^  I  quote  from  the  German  translation  in  my  library  {Reise-Beschreibu7ig, 
Geneva, '1 674),  part  i,  p.  193,  b:  Mousul,  an  welchem  Ort  vorzeiten 
Ninive  gestanden. 


10  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

passe  on  the  rampire  in  front :  these  walls  were  garnished 
with  a  thousand  and  five  hundreth  towers,  which  gave  ex- 
ceeding beauty  to  the  rest,  and  a  strength  no  lesse  admir- 
able for  the  nature  of  those  times."  ^ 

Tavernier,  who  justly  prides  himself  in  having  travelled 
by  land  more  than  sixty  thousand  miles  within  forty  years, 
made  no  less  than  six  different  excursions  into  Asia.  In 
April,  1644,  he  spent  over  a  week  at  Mosul,  and  most 
naturally  also  visited  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  which  were 
pointed  out  to  him  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Tigris.  "  They 
appear  as  a  formless  mass  of  ruined  houses  extending  almost 
a  mile  alongside  the  river.  One  recognizes  there  a  large 
number  of  vaults  or  holes  which  are  all  uninhabited,"  — 
evidentlv  the  same  place  which,  seventy-five  years  before 
him,  Rauwolff  had  found  frequented  by  poor  people,  and 
not  unfittingly  had  compared  to  a  large  ant-hill.  "  Half 
a  mile  from  the  Tigris  is  a  small  hill  occupied  by  many 
houses  and  a  mosque,  which  is  still  in  a  fine  state  of  preser- 
vation. According  to  the  accounts  of  the  natives  the  pro- 
phet Jonah  lies  buried  here."  ^ 

During  the  eighteenth  century  men  of  business,  scholars, 
and  priests  of  different  religious  orders  kept  the  old  tradi- 
tion alive  in  the  accounts  of  their  travels.  But  in  1748 
Jean  Otter,  a  member  of  the  French  Academy,  and  after- 
wards professor  of  Arabic,  who  had  spent  ten  years  in  the 
provinces  of  Turkey  and  Persia  for  the  distinct  purpose 
of  studying  geographical  and  historical  questions,  suddenly 
introduced  a  strong  element  of  doubt  as  to  the  value  and 
continuity  of  the  local  tradition  around  Mosul.'     He  dis- 

1  "The  Preacher's  Travels,"  London,  161  1,  pp.  89,  je^.  Comp., 
also,  Rogers,  "  History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  94,  se^. 

-  Comp.  Herrn  Johann  Baptisten  Tavertiiers  Fierzig-Jahrige  Reise- 
Beschreibung,  translated  by  Menudier,  Nuremberg,  1681,  part  i,  p.  74. 

8  In  his  Vosage  en  Turquie  et  en  Perse,  Paris,  1748,  vol.  i.,  pp.  133, 
seq.  Comp.,  also,  Buckingham,  "Travels  in  Mesopotamia,"  London, 
1827,  vol.  ii.,  p.  17. 


DURING    19'"    CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND    HAHYLOMA       11 

criminates  between  the  statement  of  the  Arabian  geographer 
Abulfeda,  claiming  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tigris  tor  the 
true  site  of  Nineveh,  and  a  tradition  current  among  the 
natives/  who  identify  Kski-Mosul,  a  ruin  on  the  western 
side  and  considerably  higher  up  the  river,  with  the  ancient 
city,  himself  favoring,  however,  the  former  view.  For, 
"  opposite  Mosul  there  is  a  place  called  Tell  Et-tuba,  i.  e.^ 
'  Mound  of  Repentance,'  where,  they  say,  the  Ninevites 
put  on  sackcloth  and  ashes  to  turn  away  the  wrath  of  God." 

The  old  tradition  which  placed  the  ruin  of  Nineveh 
opposite  Mosul  was  vindicated  anew  by  the  Danish  scholar 
Carsten  Niebuhr,  who  visited  the  place  in  1766.  Though 
not  attempting  to  give  a  detailed  description  of  the  ruins  in 
which  we  are  chiefly  interested,  he  states  his  own  personal 
conviction  very  decidedly,  and  adds  some  new  and  important 
facts  illustrated  by  the  first  sketch  of  the  large  southern 
mound  of  Nebi  Yunus."  Jewish  and  Christian  inhabitants 
alike  declare  that  Nineveh  stood  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
river,  and  they  differ  only  as  to  the  original  extent  of  the 
city. 

Two  principal  hills  are  to  be  distinguished,  the  former 
crowned  with  the  village  of  Nunia  (/.  e.,  Nineveh)  and  a 
mosque  said  to  contain  the  tomb  of  the  prophet  Jonah 
(Nebi  Yunus),  the  other  known  by  the  name  of  Qal'at 
Nunia  ("  the  castle  of  Nineveh  "),  and  occupied  by  the  vil- 
lage of  Qoyunjuk.  While  living  in  Mosul  near  the  Tigris, 
he  was  also  shown  the  ancient  walls  of  the  city  on  the  other 

^  Also  reported  (and  favored)  by  the  Italian  Academician  and  botanist 
Sestini,  who  in  1781  travelled  from  Constantinople  through  Asia  Minor  to 
Mosul  and  Basra,  and  in  the  following  year  from  there  via  Mosul  and  Aleppo 
to  Alexandria.  Comp.  the  French  translation  of  his  account,  Voyage  Je  Con- 
stanthjople  a  Bassora,  etc.,  Paris,  vi.  (year  of  the  Republic  =  1798), 
p.    152. 

"^  Comp.  C.  Niebuhrs  Reisebeschreibung  nach  Arabien  und  andern  um- 
liegenden  Lander n,  Copenhagen,  1778,  vol.  ii.,  p.  353,  and  Plates  xlvi.  and 
xlvii..  No,  2. 


12  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

side,  which  formerly  he  had  mistaken  for  a  chain  of  low 
hills.  Niebuhr's  account  was  brief,  but  it  contained  all  the 
essential  elements  of  a  correct  description  of  the  ruins,  and 
by  its  very  brevity  and  terse  presentation  of  facts  stands 
out  prominently  from  the  early  literature  as  a  silent  protest 
against  the  rubbish  so  often  contained  in  the  works  of  pre- 
vious travellers. 

To  a  certain  degree,  therefore,  D'Anville  was  justified  in 
summing  up  the  whole  question  concerning  the  site  of 
Nineveh,  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  by  making 
the  bold  statement  in  his  geographical  work,  "  The  Eu- 
phrates and  Tigris  "  :  ^  "  We  know  that  the  opposite  or 
left  bank  of  the  river  has  preserved  vestiges  of  Nineveh, 
and  that  the  tradition  as  to  the  preaching  of  Jonah  by  no 
means  has  been  forgotten  there." 

BABYLON 

The  case  of  Babvlon  was  somewhat  different.  The 
powerful  influence  which  for  nearly  two  thousand  years  this 
great  Oriental  metropolis  had  exercised  upon  the  nations  of 
Western  Asia,  no  less  by  its  learning  and  civilization  than 
by  its  victorious  battles  ;  the  fame  of  its  former  splendor 
and  magnitude  handed  down  by  so  many  different  writers  ; 
the  enormous  mass  of  ruins  still  testifying  to  its  gigantic 
temples  and  palaces  ;  and  the  local  tradition  continuing  to 
live  among  the  inhabitants  of  that  desolate  region  with 
greater  force  and  tenacity  than  in  the  district  of  Mosul, 
prevented  its  name  and  site  from  ever  being  forgotten 
entirely.  At  the  end  of  the  first  Christian  century  the  city 
was  in  ruins  and  practically  deserted.  But  even  when 
Baghdad  had  risen  to  the  front,  taking  the  place  of  Babylon 
and  Seleucia  as  an  eastern  centre  of  commerce  and  civiliza- 
tion, Arabian  and  Persian  writers  occasionally  speak  of  the 

1   U Euphrate  et  le  Tigre,  Paris,  1779,  p.  88. 


DURING   I'Jiii    CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA       13 

two,   and   as   late  as   the   close   of  the   tenth   century,   Ibn 
Hauqal  refers  to  Babel  as  "  a  small  village."  ^ 

The  more  we  advance  in  the  first  half  of  the  second  mil- 
lennium, the  scantier  grows  our  information.  Benjamin  of 
Tudela  has  but  little  to  say.  His  interest  centred  in  the 
relics  of  the  numerous  Jewish  colonies  of  the  countries 
traversed  and  in  their  history  and  tradition.  Briefly  he 
mentions  the  ruins  of  the  palace  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  "  to 
men  inaccessible  on  account  of  the  various  and  malignant 
kinds  of  serpents  and  scorpions  living  there."  ^  With  more 
detail  he  describes  the  Tower  of  Babel  ("  built  by  the  dis- 
persed generation,  of  bricks  called  al-ajur  "  ^),  which  appar- 
ently he  identified  with  the  lofty  ruins  of  Birs  (Nimrud). 
Other  travellers,  like  Marco  Polo,  visited  the  same  regions 
without  even  referring  to  the  large  artificial  mounds  which 
they  must  frequently  have  noticed  on  their  journeys. 
Travelling  to  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  in 
those  early  days,  was  more  for  adventure  or  commercial 
and  religious  purposes  than  for  the  scientific  exploration  of 
the  remains  of  a  bygone  race,  about  which  even  the  most 

^  A  brief  summary  of  the  different  ancient  writers  who  refer  to  the  gradual 
disappearance  of  Babylon,  and  of  the  more  prominent  European  travellers  who 
visited  or  are  reported  to  have  visited  the  ruins  of  Babylon  ( with  extracts  from 
their  accounts  in  an  appendix),  is  found  in  the  introduction  to  the  '*  Collection 
of  Rich's  Memoirs,"  written  by  Mrs.  Rich.  It  rests  upon  the  well-known 
dissertation  on  Babylon  by  De  Ste.  Croix,  published  in  the  Jlfemoirt's  dc  F  Aca- 
demie  des  Inscriptions  et  des  Belles-Lettrcs,  1789.  Of  more  recent  writers 
who  have  treated  the  same  subject,  I  mention  only  Kaulen  {^Assyrien  und 
Babylonien,  5th  ed.,  I099)  and  Rogers  ('<  History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria," 
vol.  i.,  1900).  Much  information  on  the  early  writers  is  also  scattered  through 
Ritter's  Die  Erdkunde  von  Asien,  especially  vol.  xi.  of  the  whole  series. 

^  Itinerarium   Beniamini  Tudelensis,  p.  70,  seq. 

^  The  Latin  translation  has  Lagzar  (1T3S7).  Al-aiiir  (comp.  lajHr  in  the 
Maghreb  dialects)  is  used  also  bv  the  present  inhabitants  of  Babylonia  as 
another  designation  for  "  baked  brick  "  {tahHq).  The  word  is  identical 
with  the  Babylonian  agurru,  as  was  recognized  by  Rawlinson,  "  journal  of 
the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,"  vol.  xvii.,  p.  9. 


14  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

learned  knew  but  little.  In  the  following  sketch  I  quote, 
in  historical  order,  only  those  travellers  who  have  actually 
furnished  some  kind  of  useful  information  concerning  Baby- 
lon or  other  Babylonian  sites. 

From  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  we  have 
three  testimonials,  that  of  Rauwolff,  the  adventurous  physi- 
cian of  Augsburg  (travelHng  1573-76),  that  of  the  Venetian 
jeweller,  Balbi  (1579-80),'  and  that  of  the  English  merchant 
Eldred  (1583),  a  contemporary  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  who 
descended  the  Euphrates  in  a  boat,  landed  at  Falluja  (or 
Feluja,  according  to  the  popular  Arabic  pronunciation),  and 
proceeded  across  'Iraq  to  Baghdad.  In  vague  terms  they  all 
speak  of  the  ruins  of  "  the  mighty  city  of  Babylon,"  the 
"  Tower  of  Babel,"  and  the  "  Tower  of  Daniel,"  which  they 
beheld  in  the  neighborhood  of  Falluja  or  on  their  way  to 
Baghdad  or  "  New  Babylon."  Their  words  have  been 
generally  accepted  without  criticism.^  It  is,  however,  en- 
tirely out  of  question  that  a  traveller  who  disembarked  at 
Falluja,  directing  his  course  due  east,  and  arriving  at  Bagh- 
dad after  one  and  a  half  days'  journey,  could  possibly  have 
passed  or  even  have  seen  the  ruins  of  Babylon.  From  a 
comparison  of  the  accounts  given  by  Rauwolfi",  Eldred, 
and  others  with  what  I  personally  observed  in  1889,  when 
for  the  first  time  I  travelled  precisely  the  same  road,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  they  mistook  the  various  ruin  heaps 
and  the  manv  large  and  small  portions  of  high  embank- 
ments of  ancient  canals  everywhere  visible  ^  for  scattered  re- 

^  Not  having  been  able  to  examine  his  statement  in  the  author's  own  book, 
I  profited  bv  the  brief  resume  of  his  travel  given  by  Mrs.  Rich  in  her  edition 
of  her  husband's  "  Collected  Memoirs,"  p.   55,  footnote  ■>. 

^  Rogers,  in  his  "  History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  89,  jv^^., 
asserts  that  Eldred  confused  Baghdad  and  Babylon.  But  this  is  incorrect, 
for  Eldred  says  plainly  enough  :  "  The  citie  of  New  Babylon  [Baghdad] 
jovneth  upon  the  aforesaid  desert  where  the  Olde  citie  was,"  /.  e.,  the  desert 
between  Falluja  and  Baghdad  which  our  author  crossed. 

2   Possibly  they  included  even  the  large  ruins  of  Anbar,  plainly  to  be  recog- 


DURING  19™    CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND   BABYLONIA       15 

mains  of  the  very  extended  city  of  Babylon,  and  the  im- 
posing brick  structure  of  'Aqarquf  for  the  "  Tower  of 
Babel  "  or  "  of  Daniel."  For  'Aqarquf,  generally  pro- 
nounced 'Agarguf,  and  situated  about  nine  to  ten  miles  to 
the  west  of  Baghdad,  is  the  one  gigantic  ruin  which  every 
traveller  crossing  the  narrow  tract  of  land  from  Falliija  to 
Baghdad  must  pass  and  wonder  at.  Moreover,  the  descrip- 
tion of  that  ruin,  as  given  by  Eldred  and  others  after  him, 
contains  several  characteristic  features  from  which  it  can  be 
identified  without  difficulty.  We  quote  Eldred's  own  lan- 
guage :  "  Here  also  are  yet  standing  the  ruines  of  the  olde 
Tower  of  Babell,  which  being  upon  a  plaine  ground  seemeth 
a  farre  off  very  great,  but  the  nearer  you  come  to  it,  the 
lesser  and  lesser  it  appeareth  :  sundry  times  I  have  gone 
thither  to  see  it,  and  found  the  remnants  yet  standing  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  compasse,  and  almost  as  high  as  the 
stone  work  of  Paules  steeple  in  London,  but  it  showeth 
much  bigger.  The  brickes  remaining  in  this  most  ancient 
monument  be  half  a  yard  [in  the  sense  of  our  "  foot "] 
thicke  and  three  quarters  of  a  yard  long,  being  dried  in  the 
Sunne  only,  and  betweene  every  course  of  brickes  there 
lieth  a  course  of  mattes  made  of  canes,  which  remaine 
sounde  and  not  perished,  as  though  they  had  been  layed 
within  one  yeere."  ^ 

Master  Allen,^  who  travelled   in    the  same   region   not 

nized  from  Falluja,  and  only  a  few  miles  to  the  north  of  it.  For  all  these 
travellers  had  a  vague  idea  that  ancient  Babylon  was  situated  on  the  Eu- 
phrates, and  that  its  ruins  covered  a  vast  territory.  Eldred's  description  is 
especially  explicit  :  "In  this  place  which  we  crossed  over  stood  the  olde 
mightie  citie  of  Babylon,  manv  olde  ruines  whereof  are  easilie  to  be  scene  by 
daylight,  which  I,  John  Eldred,  have  often  behelde  at  my  goode  leisure, 
having  made  three  voyages  between  the  New  citie  ot  Babylon  [/.  e.,  Bagh- 
dad] and  Aleppo." 

^  Hakluyt,  "The  Principal  Navigations,  Voiages,  and  Discoveries  of  the 
English  Nation,"  London,   1589,  p.  232. 

2  Comp.    "  Purchas  his  Pilgrimage,"    London,   1626,   p.   50    (quoted    in 
Rich's  "Collected  Memoirs,"  pp.  321,  sei^.,  footnote  *). 
3 


16  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

many  years  afterwards,  gives  as  his  measurement  of  those 
bricks  twelve  by  eight  by  six  inches.  Eldred's  statement, 
however,  is  more  correct.  While  visiting  'Aqarquf,  I  found 
the  average  size  of  complete  bricks  from  that  ruin  to  be 
eleven  inches  square  by  four  inches  and  a  quarter  thick.-' 
The  layers  of  reed  matting,  a  characteristic  feature  of  the 
massive  ruin,  are  not  so  frequent  as  stated  by  Eldred. 
They  occur  only  after  every  fifth  to  seventh  layer  of  bricks, 
at  an  average  interval  of  nearly  three  feet.  What  is  now 
left  of  this  high,  towering,  and  inaccessible  structure,  above 
the  accumulation  of  rubbish  at  its  base,  rises  to  a  little  over 
a  hundred  feet.  If  there  is  still  any  doubt  as  to  the  cor- 
rectness of  the  theory  set  forth,  a  mere  reference  to  the 
positive  statement  of  Tavernier,"  who  visited  Baghdad  in 
1652,  will  suffice  to  dispel  it. 

Shirley's  and  Cartwright's  references  to  Babylon,  or  rather 
to  the  locality  just  discussed,  may  be  well  passed  over,  the 
former  delighting  more  in  preaching  than  in  teaching,  the 
latter  largely  reproducing  the  account  of  Eldred,  with  which 
he  was  doubtless  familiar.  Of  but  little  intrinsic  value  is 
also  what  Boeventing,  Taxeira,  and  a  number  of  other  trav- 
ellers of  the  same  general  period  have  to  relate. 

1  Chesney,  "The  Expedition  for  the  Survey  of  the  Rivers  Euphrates  and 
Tigris,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  605,  practically  gives  the  same  measures  (iij  inches 
square  by  4  deep). 

^  I  quote  from  the  German  edition  before  me  {Vierz.ig-'Jahrige  Reise-Be- 
schreibung,  translated  by  Menudier, Nuremberg,  1 68  i ,  part  I ,  p.  91  ) :  Ich  muss 
tioch  allhier  be\fugen,  zvas  ich  zvegen  dcssjetiigen,  das  i?isgemcin  von  dem  Rest 
des  Thurns  zu  Bab^ion  geglaubet  wird,  in  acht  nehmen  konnen,  zvelcher  Name 
(^Babylon)  auch  ordentUch  der  Stadt  Bagdad  gegeben  wird,  ungeachtet  selbige 
davon  liber  j  Meilen  ehtfernet  liget.  Man  siehet  also  .  .  .  einen  grossen 
von  Erden  aufgehauften  HJigei,  den  man  noch  heut  zu  Tage  Nemrod  jiennet. 
Selbiger  ist  in  mitten  einer  grossen  Landschafft,  und  lasset  sich  feme  schon  zu 
Gesichte  fassen.  Das  gemeine  Folk,  wie  ich  bereits  gedacht,  glaubet,  es  seye 
solcher  der  Uberrest  des  Bab'^lonischen  Thurns:  Allein  es  hat  einen  besseren 
Schein,  was  die  Araber  ausgeben,  welche  es  Agarcouf  nennen.  Comp.,  also, 
C.    Niebuhrs  Reisebeschreibung,  Copenhagen,  1778,  vol.  ii.,  p.  305. 


DURING   19TH    CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND  BABYLONIA       17 

The  first  to  examine  the  real  site  of  ancient  Babvlon  with 
a  certain  care  was  Pietro  della  Valle,  who  sent  the  first  copy 
of  a  tew  cuneiform  characters  from  Persepohs  to  Europe,  at 
the  same  time  stating  his  reasons  why  they  should  be  read 
from  the  left  to  the  right.  This  famous  traveller  also  car- 
ried w^ith  him  a  few  inscribed  bricks  —  probably  the  first  that 
ever  reached  Europe  — trom  Babil,  which  he  visited  towards 
the  end  of  1616,  and  from  Muqayyar  (Ur  of  the  Chaldees), 
which  he  examined  in  1625  on  his  homeward  journey.  His 
description  of  Babil,  the  most  northern  mound  of  the  ruins 
of  Babylon,  while  not  satisfactory  in  itself,  stands  far  above 
the  information  of  previous  travellers.  He  tells  us  that  this 
large  mound,  less  ruined  at  those  days  than  at  the  beginning 
of  the  twentieth  centurv,  was  a  huge  rectangular  tower  or 
pyramid  with  its  corners  pointing  to  the  four  cardinal  points. 
The  material  of  this  structure  he  describes  as  "  the  most  re- 
markable thing  I  ever  saw."  It  consists  of  sundried-bricks, 
something  so  strange  to  him  that  in  order  to  make  quite 
sure,  he  dug  at  several  places  into  the  mass  with  pickaxes. 
"  Here  and  there,  especially  at  places  which  served  as  sup- 
ports, the  bricks  of  the  same  size  were  baked." 

Vincenzo  Maria  di  S.  Caterina  di  Sienna,  procurator  gen- 
eral of  the  Carmelite  monks,  who  sailed  up  the  Euphrates 
forty  vears  later,  like  Pietro  della  Valle  even  made  an  at- 
tempt at  vindicating  the  local  tradition  by  arguing  that  the 
place  is  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  that  the  sur- 
rounding districts  are  fertile,  that  for  many  miles  the  land  is 
covered  with  the  ruins  of  magnificent  buildings,  and  above 
all,  that  there  still  exist  the  remains  of  the  Tower  of  Babel, 
"which  to  this  day  is  called  Nimrod's  tower," — referring 
to  Birs  (Nimrud)  on  the  western  side  of  the  Euphrates. 

More  sceptical  is  the  view  taken  by  the  Dominican  father 
Emmanuel  de   St.  Albert,^  who  paid  a  visit  to  this  remark- 

1  In  D'Anville's  Memoir f  sur  la  Position  de  Bah\lone,  I  761 ,  published  as  a 
paper  of  the  Memoir es  de  P  Academie  des  Inscriptions  et  des  Belles-Lettres^ 
vol.  xxviii.,  p.  256. 


18  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

able  spot  about  1700.  In  sharp  contrast  to  the  earHer  trav- 
ellers, who  with  but  few  exceptions  were  always  ready  to 
chronicle  as  facts  the  fanciful  stories  related  to  them  by  Ori- 
ental companions  and  interpreters  in  obliging  response  to 
their  numerous  questions,  we  here  find  a  sober  and  distrust- 
ful inquirer  carefully  discriminating  between  "  the  foolish 
stories  "  current  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  and 
his  own  personal  observations  and  inferences.  Near  Hilla, 
on  the  two  opposite  banks  of  the  river  and  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  each  other,  he  noticed  two  artificial  elevations, 
the  one  "  situated  in  Mesopotamia,"  containing  the  ruins  of 
a  large  building,  "  the  other  in  Arabia  about  an  hour's  dis- 
tance from  the  Euphrates,"  characterized  by  two  masses  of 
cemented  brick  (the  one  standing,  the  other  lying  overturned 
beside  it),  which  "  seemed  as  if  they  had  been  vitrified." 
"  People  think  that  this  latter  hill  is  the  remains  of  the  real 
Babylon,  but  I  do  not  know  what  they  will  make  of  the 
other,  which  is  opposite  and  exactlv  like  this  one."  Con- 
vinced, however,  that  the  ruins  must  be  ancient,  and  much 
impressed  by  the  curious  "writing  in  unknown  characters  " 
which  he  found  on  the  large  square  bricks.  Father  Emman- 
uel selected  a  few  of  the  latter  from  both  hills  and  carried 
them  away  with  him. 

Travellers,  whose  education  was  limited,  and  missionaries, 
who  viewed  those  ruins  chiefiy  from  a  religious  standpoint, 
have  had  their  say.  Let  us  now  brieflv  discuss  the  views 
of  such  visitors  who  took  a  strictly  scientific  interest  in  the 
ruins  of  Babylon.  In  connection  with  his  epoch-making 
journey  to  Arabia  and  Persia,  Carsten  Niebuhr  examined  the 
mounds  around  Hilla  in  1765.  Though  furnishing  little 
new  information  as  to  their  real  size  and  condition,  in  this 
respect  not  unlike  the  French  geographer  and  historian  Jean 
Otter,  who  had  been  at  the  same  mounds  in  1743,  Niebuhr 
presented  certain  reasons  for  his  own  positive  conviction  that 
the  ruins  of  Babylon  must  be  located  in  the  neighborhood 


DURING   19TH    CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       19 

of  Hilla.^  He  regarded  the  designation  of  "  Ard  Babel" 
given  to  that  region  by  the  natives,  and  the  apparent  re- 
mains of  an  ancient  city  found  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  es- 
pecially the  numerous  inscribed  bricks  lying  on  the  ground, 
which  are  evidence  of  a  very  high  state  of  civilization,  as 
solid  proof  for  the  correctness  of  the  local  tradition.  He  even 
pointed  out  the  large  ruin  heaps, "  three  quarters  of  a  Ger- 
man mile  to  the  north-northwest  of  Hilla  and  close  by  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  river  [El-Qasr] ,"  as  the  probable  site 
of  Babylon's  castle  and  the  hanging  gardens  mentioned  by 
Strabo,  while  Birs  (Nimriid),  "  an  entire  hill  of  fine  bricks 
with  a  tower  on  the  top  "  he  regarded  as  Herodotus'  "  Tem- 
ple of  Belus,"  therefore  as  lying  still  within  the  precinct  of 
ancient  Babylon. 

Our  last  and  best  informed  witness  from  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  who  deserves,  therefore,  our  special  atten- 
tion, is  Abbe  De  Beauchamp.  Well  equipped  with  astro- 
nomical and  other  useful  knowledge,  he  resided  at  Baghdad 
as  the  Pope's  vicar-general  of  Babylonia  for  some  time  be- 
tween 1780  and  1790.  The  ruins  of  Babylon,  in  which  he 
was  deeply  interested,  being  only  sixteen  to  eighteen  hours 
distant  from  Baghdad,  he  paid  two  visits  to  the  famous  site, 
publishing  the  results  of  his  various  observations  in  several 
memoirs,"  from  which  we  extract  the  following  noteworthy 
facts  :  "  There  is  no  difficulty  about  the  position  of  Baby- 
lon." Its  ruins  are  situated  in  the  district  of  Hilla,  about 
one  league  to  the  north  of  it  (latitude  3 2°  34'),  on  the  oppo- 
site (left)  side  of  the  Euphrates,  "  exactly  under  the  mound 
the  Arabs  call  Babel."  There  are  no  ruins  of  Babylon 
proper  on  the  western  side  of  the  river,  as  D'Anville  in  his 

1  Comp.  Rcisebeschreibung,  Copenhagen,  1778,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  287,  seq.  : 
Ddss  Babylon  in  der  Gegend  von  Helle  gclegen  habe,  daran  ist  gar  kein  Zivei- 

fel. 

2  In  Journal  des  Savants,  Mai,  1785,  and  Dec,  1790.  For  extracts  see 
Rich's  "  Collected  Memoirs,"  pp.  301,  seq. 


20  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

geographical  work  assumes,  making  the  Euphrates  divide 
the  city.  The  mounds  which  are  to  be  seen  "on  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  at  about  a  league's  distance  from  its  banks, 
are  called  by  the  i\rabs  Bros  [meaning  Birs]."  Among 
the  ruins  of  Babylon,  which  chiefly  consist  of  bricks  scat- 
tered about,  "  there  is  in  particular  an  elevation  which  is  flat 
on  the  top,  of  an  irregular  form,  and  intersected  by  ravines. 
It  would  never  have  been  taken  for  the  work  of  human 
hands,  were  it  not  proved  by  the  layers  of  bricks  found  in 
it.  .  .  .  They  are  baked  with  fire  and  cemented  with  zepht 
[z///]  or  bitumen  ;  between  each  layer  are  found  osiers." 
Not  very  far  from  this  mound,  "  on  the  banks  of  the 
river,  are  immense  heaps  of  ruins  which  have  served  and 
still  serve  for  the  building  of  Hillah.  .  .  .  Here  are  found 
those  large  and  thick  bricks  imprinted  with  unknown  char- 
acters, specimens  of  which  I  have  presented  to  the  Abbe 
Bartholomv.  This  place  [evidently  El-Oasr]  and  the 
mound  of  Babel  are  commonly  called  by  the  Arabs  Mak~ 
loube  [or  rather  Muqailiba^  popularly  pronounced  Muje- 
liba\^  that  is,  overturned,"  Further  to  the  north  Beau- 
champ  was  shown  a  thick  brick  wall,  "  which  ran  perpen- 
dicular to  the  bed  of  the  river  and  was  probably  the  wall  of 
the  city."  The  Arabs  employed  to  dig  for  bricks  obtained 
their  material  from  this  and  similar  walls,  and  sometimes 
even  from  whole  chambers,  "  frequently  finding  earthen 
vessels  and  engraved  marbles,  .  .  .  sometimes  idols  of  clay 
representing  human  figures,  or  solid  cylinders  covered  with 
very  small  writing  .  .  .  and  about  eight  years  ago  a  statue 
as  large  as  life,  which  was  thrown  amongst  the  rubbish." 
On  the  w^all  of  a  chamber  they  had  discovered  "  figures  of  a 
cow  and  of  the  sun  and  moon  formed  of  varnished  bricks." 
Beauchamp  himself  secured  a  brick  on  which  was  a  lion,  and 

1  In  the  Arabic  dialect  of  modern  Babvlonia  the  diminutive  {fu'^ail)  is 
frequently  used  instead  of  the  regular  noun  formation.  Comp.  Oppert, 
Expedition  en  Mesopotamie,  vol.  i.,  p.   114. 


DURING   lO-rri    CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      21 

Others  with  a  crescent  in  relief.  He  even  employed  two 
laborers  for  three  hours  in  clearing  a  large  stone  which  the 
Arabs  supposed  to  be  an  idol,  apparently  the  large  lion  of 
the  Qasr  ^  recently  set  up  again  by  the  German  expedition. 

Imperfect  as  the  report  of  Beauchamp  must  appear  in 
the  hght  of  our  present  knowledge,  at  the  time  when  it  was 
written  it  conveyed  to  the  public  for  the  first  time  a  tolera- 
bly clear  idea  of  the  exact  position  and  enormous  size  of 
the  ruins  of  Babylon  and  of  the  great  possibilities  connected 
with  their  future  excavation.  It  was  particularly  in  England 
that  people  began  to  realize  the  importance  of  these  cylin- 
ders and  bricks  covered  with  cuneiform  writing  "  resembling 
the  inscriptions  of  Persepolis  mentioned  by  Chardin."  The 
East  India  Company  of  London  became  the  first  public  ex- 
ponent of  this  rapidly  growing  interest  in  Great  Britain,  by 
ordering  their  Resident  at  Basra  to  obtain  several  specimens 
of  these  remarkable  bricks  and  to  send  them  carefully  packed 
to  London.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  a 
small  case  of  Babylonian  antiquities  arrived,  the  first  of  a 
long  series  to  follow  years  later.  Insignificant  as  it  was,  it 
soon  played  an  important  role  in  helping  to  determine  the 
character  of  the  third  system  of  writing  used  in  the  Persian 
inscriptions. 

There  were  other  travellers  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  who,  like  Edw.  Ives"  and  the  French  physician 
G.  A.  Olivier,^  also  visited  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  and  Baby- 
lon, occasionally  even  contributing  a  few  details  to  our 
previous  knowledge.  But  they  did  not  alter  the  general 
conception  derived  from  the  work  of  their  predecessors, 
especially  Niebuhr  and   Beauchamp.     The   first  period  of 

1  Also  the  opinion  of  Rich,  "  Collected  Memoirs,"  pp.  36,  64,  se^. 

2  Comp.  "Journal  from  Persia  to  England,"  London,  1773,  vol.  ii.,  pp. 
321,  se^.  (Nineveh),  etc. 

8  Comp.  Voyage  dans  P  Empire  Othoman,  P Egypte  et  la  Perse,  6  vols., 
Paris,  1801-07,  especially  vol.  ii. 


22  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Assyrian  and  Babylonian  exploration  had  come  to  an  end. 
Merchants  and  adventurers,  missionaries  and  scholars  had 
equally  contributed  their  share  to  awakening  Western  Eu- 
rope from  its  long  lethargy  by  again  vividly  directing  the 
attention  of  the  learned  and  religious  classes  to  the  two  great 
centres  of  civilization  in  the  ancient  East.  The  ruins  of 
Nineveh,  on  the  upper  course  of  the  Tigris,  had  been  less 
frequently  visited  and  less  accurately  described  than  those 
of  Babylon  on  the  lower  Euphrates.  The  reason  is  very 
evident.  The  glory  of  the  great  Assyrian  metropolis  van- 
ished more  quickly  and  completely  from  human  sight,  and 
its  ruins  lay  further  from  the  great  caravan  road  on  which 
the  early  travellers  proceeded  to  Baghdad,  the  famous  city  of 
Harun-ar-Rashid,  then  a  principal  centre  for  the  exchange 
of  the  products  of  Asia  and  Europe.  But  the  ascertained 
results  of  the  observations  and  efforts  of  many,  and  in  par- 
ticular the  better  equipped  missionaries  and  scholars  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  were  the  rediscovery  and  almost  definite 
fixing  of  the  actual  sites  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  which, 
forgotten  by  Europe,  had  seemed  to  lie  under  a  doom  of 
eternal  silence,  —  the  Divine  response  to  the  curses  of  the 
oppressed  nations  and  of  the  Old  Testament  prophets. 


II 

EXPLORING    AND     SURVEYING      IN    THE     NINETEENTH 

CENTURY 

The  close  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  dawn  of  the  nine- 
teenth centuries  witnessed  a  feverish  activity  in  the  work- 
shops of  a  small  but  steadily  growing  number  of  European 
scholars.  The  continuous  reports  by  different  travellers 
of  the  imposing  ruins  of  Persepolis,  the  occasional  repro- 
duction of  sculptures  and  inscriptions  from  the  walls  and 
pillars  of  its  palaces,  the  careful  sifting  and  critical  editing 


DURING   19™    CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA       23 

of  the  whole  material  by  the  indefatigable  explorer  Niebuhr, 
had  convinced  even  the  most  sceptical  men  of  science  that 
there  were  really  still  in  existence  considerable  artistic  and 
literary  remains  of  a  bygone  nation,  whose  powerful  influ- 
ence, at  times,  had  been  felt  even  in  Egypt  and  Greece. 
Strong  efforts  were  made  in  Denmark,  France,  and  Ger- 
many to  obtain  a  satisfactory  knowledge  of  the  ancient  sa- 
cred language  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  to  discover  the  meaning 
of  the  younger  Pehlevi  inscriptions  on  Sassanian  seals  and 
other  small  objects  so  frequently  found  in  Persia,  and  to 
attempt  even  the  deciphering  of  these  strange  wedge-shaped 
characters  on  the  walls  of  Persepolis.  Names  like  Anque- 
til-Duperron,  Eugene  Burnouf,  Sylvestre  de  Sacy,  Niebuhr, 
Tychsen,  Miinter,  and  others  will  always  occupy  a  promi- 
nent position  in  the  esteem  of  the  following  generations 
as  the  pioneers  and  leaders  in  a  great  movement  which 
ultimately  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  great  science 
of  cuneiform  research,  destined  as  it  was  to  revolutionize 
our  whole  conception  of  the  countries  and  nations  of 
Western  Asia.  This  new  science,  though  the  final  result 
of  many  combined  forces,  sprang  so  suddenly  into  exist- 
ence that  when  it  was  actually  there,  nobody  seemed  ready 
to  receive  it. 

In  the  year  i8oa  the  genius  of  a  young  German  scholar, 
Georg  Friederich  Grotefend,  then  only  twenty-seven  years 
old,  well  versed  in  classical  philology  but  absolutely  ignorant 
of  Oriental  learning,  solved  the  riddle,  practically  in  a  few 
days,  that  had  puzzled  much  older  men  and  scholars  appa- 
rently much  better  qualified  than  himself  Under  the  magical 
touch  of  his  hand  the  mystic  and  complicated  characters  of 
ancient  Persia  suddenly  gained  new  life.  But  when  he  was 
far  enough  advanced  to  announce  to  the  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences in  Gottingen  the  epoch-making  discovery  which  es- 
tablished his  fame  and  reputation  forever,  that  learned  body, 
though   comprising  men   of   eminent   mental   training  and 


24  EXPLORATIONS  IX   BIBLE  LANDS 

intelligence,  strange  to  say,  declined  to  publish  the  Latin 
memoirs  of  this  little  known  college  teacher,  who  did  not 
belong  to  the  University  circle  proper,  nor  was  even  an 
Orientalist  by  profession.  It  was  not  until  ninety  years 
later  (1893)  that  his  original  papers  were  rediscovered  and 
published  by  Prof.  Wilhelm  Meyer,  of  Gottingen,  in  the 
Academy's  Transactions  —  a  truly  unique  case  of  posi 
mortem  examination  in  science. 

Fortunately  Grotefend  did  not  need  to  wait  for  a  critical 
test  and  proper  acknowledgment  of  his  remarkable  work 
until  he  would  have  reached  a  patriarchal  age  at  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  Heeren,  De  Sacy,  and  others 
lent  their  helping  hands  to  disseminate  the  extraordinary 
news  of  the  great  historical  event  in  the  learned  world  of 
Europe.  Afterwards  it  became  gradually  known  that  far 
away  from  Western  civilization,  in  the  mountain  ranges  of 
Persia,  an  energetic  and  talented  officer  of  the  British  army, 
Lieutenant  (later  Sir)  Henry  Rawlinson  (born  on  April  11, 
1 8 10),  had  almost  independently,  though  more  than  thirty 
years  later,  arrived  at  the  same  results  as  Grotefend  by  a 
similar  process  of  combination. 

Niebuhr  had  already  pointed  out  that  the  inscriptions  of 
Persepolis  appeared  always  in  three  different  systems  of 
writing  found  side  by  side,  the  first  having  an  alphabet 
of  over  fortv  signs,  the  second  being  more  complicated, 
and  the  third  even  more  so.  Grotefend  had  gone  a  step 
farther  by  insisting  that  the  three  systems  of  writing  repre- 
sented three  different  languages,  of  which  the  first  was  the 
old  Persian  spoken  by  the  kings  who  erected  those  palaces 
and  inscribed  their  walls.  The  second  he  called  Median, 
the  third  Babylonian.  The  name  given  to  the  second  lan- 
guage, which  is  agglutinative,  has  later  been  repeatedly 
changed  into  Scythian,  Susian,  Amardian,  Klamitic,  An- 
zanian,  and  Neo-Susian.  The  designation  of  the  third 
language  as  Babylonian  had  been  made  possible  by  a  com- 


DURING  lOTii    CENTUBY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      25 

parison  of  its  complicated  characters  with  the  Babylonian 
inscriptions  of  the  East  India  House  in  London,  published, 
soon  after  their  arrival  in  1801,  by  Joseph  Hager.  This 
designation  was  at  once  generally  accepted,  and  has  re- 
mained in  use  ever  since. 

For  the  time  being,  however,  little  interest  was  manifested 
in  the  last-named  and  most  difficult  system  of  writing, 
which  evidently  contained  only  a  Babylonian  translation  of 
the  corresponding  Persian  inscriptions.  More  material, 
written  exclusively  in  the  third  style  of  cuneiform  writing, 
was  needed  from  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  mounds 
themselves,  not  onlv  to  attract  the  curiositv  but  to  com- 
mand the  undivided  attention  of  scholars.  This  having 
been  once  provided,  it  would  be  only  a  question  of  time 
when  the  same  kev,  which,  in  the  hands  of  Grotefend,  had 
wrought  such  wonders  as  to  unlock  the  doors  to  the  history 
of  ancient  Persia,  would  open  the  far  more  glorious  and 
remote  past  of  the  great  civilization  between  the  Euphrates 
and  Tigris.  But  in  order  to  obtain  the  inscriptions  needed, 
other  more  preparatorv  work  had  to  be  undertaken  first. 
The  treasure-house  itself  had  to  be  examined  and  studied 
more  carefully,  before  a  successful  attempt  could  be  made 
to  lift  the  treasure  concealed  in  its  midst.  A  survey  of 
Babylon  and  Nineveh  and  other  prominent  ruins  in  easy 
access,  and  more  authentic  and  reliable  information  con- 
cerning the  geographv  and  topography  of  the  whole 
countrv  in  which  thev  were  situated,  was  an  indispensable 
requirement  before  the  work  of  excavation  could  properly 
begin. 

So  far  England  had  been  conspicuously  absent  from  the 
serious  technical  work  carried  on  by  representatives  of  other 
nations  in  the  studv  and  in  the  field.  And  vet  no  other 
European  power  was  so  eminently  qualified  to  provide  what 
still  was  lacking  as  the  "  Queen  of  the  Sea,"  through  her 
regular  and  well-established  commercial  and  political  rela- 


26  EXPLOBATIONS   IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

tions  with  India  and  the  Persian  gulf.  The  sound  of  pop- 
ular interest  and  enthusiasm,  which  had  been  heard  in  Great 
Britain  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  never  died 
away  entirely.  Englishmen  now  came  forward  well  quali- 
fied to  carry  out  the  first  part  of  this  scientific  mission  of 
the  European  nations  in  the  country  between  the  Euphrates 
and  Tigris,  where  for  many  years  they  worked  with  great 
energy,  skill,  and  success. 

CLAUDIUS    JAMES    RICH 

The  first  methodical  explorer  and  surveyor  of  Babylonian 
and  Assyrian  ruins  and  rivers  was  Claudius  James  Rich. 
Born  in  1787  near  Dijon,  in  France,  educated  in  Bristol, 
England,  he  developed,  when  a  mere  child,  such  a  decided 
gift  for  the  study  of  Oriental  languages  that  at  the  age  of 
sixteen  years  he  was  appointed  to  a  cadetship  in  the  East 
India  Company's  military  service.  Seriously  affected  by 
circumstances  in  the  carrying  out  of  his  plans,  he  spent 
more  than  three  years  in  the  different  parts  of  the  Levant, 
perfecting  himself  in  Italian,  Turkish,  and  Arabic.  His 
knowledge  of  the  Turkish  language  and  manners  was  so 
thorough  that  while  in  Damascus  not  only  did  he  enter 
the  grand  mosque  "  in  the  disguise  of  a  Mameluke,"  but 
his  host,  "  an  honest  Turk,  who  was  captivated  with  his 
address,  eagerlv  entreated  him  to  settle  at  that  place,  offer- 
ing him  his  interest  and  his  daughter  in  marriage."  From 
Aleppo  he  proceeded  by  land  to  Basra,  whence  he  sailed 
for  Bombav,  which  he  reached  earlv  in  September,  1807. 
A  few  months  later  he  was  married  there  to  the  eldest 
daughter  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  to  whom  we  owe  the 
publication  of  most  of  her  husband's  travels  and  researches 
outside  of  the  two  memoirs  on  Babvlon  published  by  him- 
self. About  the  same  time  he  was  appointed  Resident  of 
the  East  India  Company   at    Baghdad,  a  position  which  he 


DURIXG   19TH    CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       27 

held  until  his  sudden  and  most  lamented  death  from  cholera 
morbus  in  Shiraz,  October  5,  1821.^ 

The  leisure  which  Rich  enjoyed  from  his  public  duties 
he  spent  in  pursuing  his  favorite  historical,  geographical, 
and  archaeological  studies,  the  most  valuable  fruits  of  which 
are  his  accurate  survevs  and  descriptions  of  the  ruins  of 
Babylon  and  Nineveh.  In  December,  181 1,  he  made  his 
first  brief  visit  to  the  site  ot  Babvlon.  It  lasted  but  ten 
days,  but  it  sufficed  to  convince  him  that  no  correct 
account  of  the  ruins  had  yet  been  written.  Completely 
deceived  "  bv  the  incoherent  accounts  of  former  travellers," 
instead  of  a  few  "  isolated  mounds,"  he  found  "  the  whole 
country  covered  with  the  vestiges  of  building,  in  some 
places  consisting  of  brick  walls  surprisinglv  fresh,  in  others 
merely  a  vast  succession  of  mounds  of  rubbish  of  such  in- 
determinate figures,  variety,  and  extent  as  to  involve  the 
person  who  should  have  formed  any  theory  in  inextricable 
confusion  and  contradiction."  He  set  to  work  at  once  to 
change  this  condition. 

His  two  memoirs  on  the  ruins  of  Babylon  (especially  the 
first)  are  a  perfect  mine  of  trustworthy  information  radically 
different  from  anvthing  published  on  the  subject  in  previous 
vears.  He  sketches  the  present  character  of  the  whole 
countrv   around    Babvlon,  describes   the  vestiges  of  ancient 

^  Rich's  first  "  Memoir  on  the  Ruins  of  Babylon  "  was  written  in  181  2 
in  Baghdad,  and  pubUshed  (  with  many  typographical  errors  and  unsatisfactory 
plates)  in  the  Fundgruben  des  Orients,  Menna,  181  3.  To  make  it  accessi- 
ble to  English  readers.  Rich  republished  this  memoir  in  London  (1816), 
where  also  his  second  memoir  appeared  in  i  8 1 8 .  Both  memoirs  were  later 
republished  with  Major  Rennel's  treatise  *'  On  the  Topography  of  Ancient 
Babylon,"  suggested  by  Rich's  first  publication,  and  with  Rich's  diaries  of 
his  first  excursion  to  Babylon  and  his  journey  to  Persepohs,  accompanied  by  a 
usefiil  introduction  and  appendix,  all  being  united  by  Mrs.  Rich  into  a  col- 
lective volume,  London,  1839.  His  widow  also  edited  his  •*  Narrative  of 
a  Residence  in  Koordistan  and  on  the  site  of  Ancient  Nineveh,"  London, 
1836. 


28  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

canals  and  outlying  mounds,  and  "  the  prodigious  extent  "  of 
the  centre  of  all  his  attention, —  the  ruins  of  Babylon  itself. 
And  to  all  this  he  adds  his  personal  observations  on  the 
modern  fashion  of  building  houses,  and  the  present  occupa- 
tions and  customs  of  the  inhabitants  of  'Iraq,  interwoven 
with  frequent  references  to  the  legends  of  the  Arabs  and  the 
methods  of  their  administration  under  Turkish  rule,  cor- 
rectly assuming  that  "  the  peculiar  climate  of  this  district 
must  have  caused  a  similarity  of  habits  and  accommodations 
in  all  ages."  But  valuable  as  all  these  details  are,  they 
form,  so  to  speak,  only  the  framework  for  his  faithful  and 
minute  picture  of  the  ruins  of  Babylon,^  which  we  now 
reproduce,  as  far  as  possible  with  his  own  words  :  — 

"  The  whole  of  the  area  enclosed  by  the  boundary  on 
the  east  and  south,  and  the  river  on  the  west,  is  two  miles 
and  six  hundred  yards  in  breadth  from  E.  to  W.,  and  as 
much  from  Pietro  della  Valle's  ruin  [/.  e.,  Babil  in  the  north], 
to  the  northern  part "  of  the  southern  city  wall,  "  or  two  miles 
and  one  thousand  yards  to  the  most  southerly  mound  of  all. 
This  space  is  again  longitudinally  subdivided  into  nearly 
half,  by  a  straight  line  of  the  same  kind  with  the  boundary, 
but  much  its  inferior  in  point  of  size.  .  .  .  These  ruins 
consist  of  mounds  of  earth,  formed  by  the  decomposition  of 
buildings,  channelled  and  furrowed  by  the  weather,  and  the 
surface  of  them  strewed  with  pieces  of  brick,  bitumen,  and 
pottery." 

The  most  northern  mound  is  Babil,  called  by  the  natives 
Mujeliba?  "Full  five  miles  distant  from  H ilia,  and  nine 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  the  river  bank,  it  is  of  an 
oblong  shape,  irregular  in  its  height  and  the  measurement 
of  its  sides,  which  point  to  the  cardinal  points.  The  ele- 
vation of  the  southeast  or  highest  angle,  is  one  hundred  and 

^  Comp,  Map,  No.  2  (Plan  of  Babylon). 

'^  Like  Beauchamp,  Rich  states  correctly  that  this  term  is  sometimes  also 
applied  to  the  second  mound,  El-Qasr. 


DURING  I'JJJi    CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA       29 

forty-one  feet/  The  western  face,  which  is  the  least  ele- 
vated, is  the  most  interesting  on  account  of  the  appearance 
of  building  it  presents."  Rich  regarded  this  conspicuous 
mound  as  part  of  the  royal  precincts,  possibly  the  hanging 
gardens. 

"  A  mile  to  the  south  of  Babil  is  a  large  conglomeration 
of  mounds,  the  shape  of  which  is  nearly  a  square  of  seven 
hundred  yards ^  in  length  and  breadth."      It  was  designated 


El-52asr,  East  Face 

by  Rich  El-Qasr  ("  the  palace  ")  from  a  very  remarkable  ruin, 
"which  being  uncovered,  and  in  part  detached  from  the  rub- 
bish, is  visible  from  a  considerable  distance.  ...  It  consists 
of  several  walls  and  piers,  eight  feet  in  thickness,  in  some 
places  ornamented  with  niches,  and  in  others  strengthened 


^  The  height  as  mea-sured  bv  Rich  differs  considerably  from  that  given  by 
the  later  surveyors.  This  difference,  while  doubtless  to  a  large  extent  the 
result  of  Rich's  inaccurate  estimation,  must  also  be  explained  by  the  fact  that 
in  course  of  time  the  Arab  brick-diggers  have  reduced  the  height  of  Babil. 

^  Most  of  the  numbers  given  by  Rich  have  been  later  on  more  or  less 
modified  by  the  different  surveyors,  who  had  more  time  and  were  better 
equipped  with  instruments. 


30  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

by  pilasters  and  buttresses,  built  of  fine  burnt  brick  (still 
perfectly  clean  and  sharp),  laid  in  lime-cement  of  such  te- 
nacity, that  those  whose  business  it  is  to  find  bricks  have 
given  up  working  on  account  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of 
extracting  them  whole."  Here  stood,  as  we  now  know,  the 
palace  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  in  which  Alexander  the  Great 
died  after  his  famous  campaign  against  India. 

Separated  from  the  previous  mound  by  a  valley  of  five 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  in  length,  "  covered  with  tussocks 
of  rank  grass,  there  rises  to  the  south  another  grand  mass 
of  ruins,  the  most  elevated  part  of  which  is  only  fifty  or 
sixty  feet  above  the  plain.  From  the  small  dome  in  the 
centre  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  a  spurious  son  of  'All, 
named  'Omran  ('Amran),  it  is  called  by  the  Arabs,  Tell 
'Omran  ibn  'All.  It  has  been  likewise  considerably  dug 
into  by  peasants  in  search  of  bricks  and  antiquities. 

The  most  southern  point  is  connected  with  the  large  em- 
bankment here  traceable  and  with  a  flourishing  village,  near 
which  the  luxurious  date  groves  of  Hilla  commence.  Both 
are  called  Qumquma  (Sachau),  now  generally  pronounced 
Jumjuma  (regarded  by  Rich  as  original,  meaning  "skull") 
or  Jimjime.      Here  terminate  the  ruins  of  ancient  Babylon. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  Rich,  in  connection  with  his 
topographical  work  on  the  ruins  of  Babylon,  would  also 
examine  "  the  most  interesting  and  remarkable  of  all  the 
Babylonian  remains,"  viz.,  Birs  (Nimrud),  of  which  he  like- 
wise left  us  an  accurate  description,  in  several  details  soon 
afterwards  supplemented  by  that  of  Buckingham.  Like 
his  successor  he  recognized  the  general  character  of  the 
ruins  as  a  stage  tower,  doubtless  influenced  by  his  endeavor 
to  identify  it  with  the  Tower  of  Belus,  and  by  the  deep  and 
lasting  impression  which  this  gigantic  ruin,  still  one  hundred 
and  fifty-three  feet  high,^  made  upon  him  at  his  first  visit.     I 

^  According  to  Felix  Jones's  survey  of  1855,  this  is  the  exact  vertical  dis- 
tance of  Birs  (Nimrud)  from  the  water  level  of  the  plain  to  the  highest  point  of 


DURING  WTH    CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       31 

quote  his  own  language  :  "  The  morning  was  at  first  stormy, 
and  threatened  a  severe  fall  of  rain,  but  as  we  approached 
the  object  of  our  journey,  the  heavy  clouds  separating,  dis- 
covered the  Birs  frowning  over  the  plain,  and  presenting 
the  appearance  of  a  circular  hill,  crowned  by  a  tower,  with 
a  high  ridge  extending  along  the  foot  of  it.  Its  being 
entirely  concealed  from  our  view,  during  the  first  part  of 
our  ride,  prevented  our  acquiring  the  gradual  idea,  in  gen- 
eral so  prejudicial  to  effect,  and  so  particularly  lamented  by 
those  who  visit  the  Pyramids.  Just  as  we  were  within  the 
proper  distance,  it  burst  at  once  upon  our  sight,  in  the 
midst  of  rolling  masses  of  thick  black  clouds  partially  ob- 
scured by  that  kind  of  haze  whose  indistinctness  is  one 
great  cause  of  sublimitv,  whilst  a  few  strong  catches  of 
stormy  light,  thrown  upon  the  desert  in  the  background, 
served  to  give  some  idea  of  the  immense  extent  and  dreary 
solitude  of  the  wastes  in  which  this  venerable  ruin  stands."^ 

The  impression  which  the  ruin  left  upon  the  mind  of  an 
otherwise  sober  observer  and  unbiassed  man  of  facts  was  so 
profound  that  it  deflected  his  judgment  and  blinded  his 
eyes  as  to  the  great  incongruity  between  his  favorite  theory 
and  all  the  topographical  evidence  so  minutelv  and  accu- 
rately set  forth  by  himself,  —  another  illustration  of  the 
truth  how  detrimental  to  scientific  investigation  anv  precon- 
ceived opinion  or  impression  must  be. 

In  addition  to  all  his  valuable  topographical  studies  Rich 
directed  his  attention  to  other  no  less  important  subjects  of 
an  archaeological  character.  We  refer  to  his  remarks  on  the 
hieratic  and  demotic  styles  of  cuneiform  writing  ("Memoirs," 
pp.  184,  seqq.) ;  his  observation  that  inscribed  bricks,  when 
found  in  sitUy  are  "  invariably  placed  with  their  faces  or 
written  sides  downwards"  (pp.  162,  seqq.),  a  fact  which  he 

the  ruin  at  the  summit  of  the  mound,  as  over  against  the  235  feet  strangely 
given  by  Rich. 

^  Comp.  Rich's  "  Collected  Memoirs,"  edited  by  his  widow,  p.  74. 

4 


32  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

at  once  employed  skilfully  against  his  opponent,  Rennell,  to 
vindicate  the  Babylonian  origin  of  the  "  surprisingly  fresh  " 
looking  ruin  of  the  Qasr ;  furthermore,  his  discussion  of 
the  different  kinds  of  cement  (bitumen,  mortar,  clay,  etc.) 
used  in  ancient  and  modern  Babylonia  (pp.  loo,  seq^.),  later 
supplemented  by  Colonel  Chesney  ;  ^  and  his  endeavor  "  to 
ascertain  in  what  particular  part  of  the  ruin  each  antique  is 
found"  (pp.  187,  seqq.),  — the  fundamental  principle  of  all 
scientific  excavations,  against  which  later  excavators  have 
sinned  only  too  often. 

He  spared  neither  personal  exertion  nor  expenses  to  ac- 
quire every  fragment  of  sculpture  and  inscribed  stone  of 
which  he  had  got  information.  To  his  efforts  we  owe  the 
barrel  cylinder,  with  Nebuchadrezzar's  account  of  his  work 
on  the  famous  canal,  Libil-khegal.  It  was  Rich  who  col- 
lected the  first  contract  tablets  and  account  lists  discovered 
in  the  lower  parts  of  the  Qasr  (/.  r.,  p.  187),  and  it  is  Rich 
again  who  obtained  the  first  fragment  of  a  clay  tablet  from 
Ashurbanapal's  library  at  Nineveh."^ 

But  in  mentioning  the  latter,  we  have  approached  another 
field  of  the  indefatigable  explorer's  labors  and  researches, 
which  we  now  propose  to  sketch  briefly. 

In  1 8 20  and  1 8 2 1 ,  on  his  return  from  a  trip  to  Persia  and 
Kurdistan,  Rich  made  an  exploring  tour  to  some  of  the 
most  prominent  ruins  of  ancient  Assyria,  Erbil  (ancient  Ar- 
bela),  Qoyunjuk,  Nebi  Yianus  (Nineveh),  and  Nimr{id.  The 
modern  town  of  Erbil  is  situated  partly  on  the  top  and 
partly  at  the  foot  of  an  artificial  mound  "about  150  feet 
high  and  1000  feet  in  diameter."  A  Turkish  castle,  which 
up  to  the  present  dav  has  been  the  chief  obstacle  to  syste- 
matic excavations,  crowns  its  flat  top.      Rich  spent  two  and 

^  In  "The  Euphrates  and  Tigris  Expedition,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  625,  seqq. 

2  Whoever  has  had  one  of  these  finest  specimens  of  cuneiform  tablets  in 
his  hands  will  readilv  recognize  the  character  and  origin  of  Rich's  fragment 
from  his  short  description  (/.  c,  p.   188). 


DURING   I'JTii    CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       33 

a  half  days  at  the  place  taking  measurements,  and  trying 
hard  to  obtain  satisfactory  information  as  to  the  contents  of 
these  ruins  and  their  early  history.  But  he  could  learn 
very  little  beyond  the  fact  that  some  time  before  his  arrival 
a  man  by  the  name  of  Hajji  'Abdullah  Bey  had  dug  up  a 
sepulchre,  in  which  was  a  body  laid  in  state,  that  fell  to 
dust  after  it  had  been  exposed  to  the  air,  and  that  large 
bricks  without  inscriptions  had  been  taken  by  another  man 
from  a  structure  below  the  cellar  of  his  house  standing  in- 
side the  castle. 

He  was  more  fortunate  at  the  ruins  of  Nimriad,  which 
he  visited  in  March,  1821.  Though  he  could  devote  but 
a  few  hours  to  their  examination,  he  was  able  to  sketch  and 
measure  the  chief  mounds,  to  furnish  a  brief  description  of 
their  actual  condition,  and  to  determine  their  general  char- 
acter from  scattered  fragments  of  burnt  bricks  with  cunei- 
form inscriptions.  In  the  large  village  of  Nimriid,  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  west  face  of  the  platform,  he 
even  procured  a  whole  brick  covered  with  cuneiform  writ- 
ing on  its  face  and  edge,  and  containing  the  name  and  title 
of  King  Shalmaneser  II.,  as  we  now  know,  since  the  deci- 
phering of  the  Assyrian  script  has  long  been  an  accom- 
plished fact. 

Of  still  greater  importance  and  of  fundamental  value  for 
the  archaeological  work  of  his  successors  was  his  residence  of 
four  months  in  Mosul.  It  fell  between  his  visits  to  Erbil  and 
Nimrud,  and  was  only  interrupted  bv  an  absence  of  twelve 
days,  during  which  he  paid  a  visit  to  the  Yezidi  villages  and 
the  Christian  monasteries  of  Mar  Matti  and  Rabban  Hor- 
muzd,  to  the  northeast  and  north  of  Mosul,  surveying  the 
country,  gathering  Syriac  manuscripts,  and  studying  the  man- 
ners and  customs  of  the  people.  The  great  facilities  and  free- 
dom of  movement  which  he  enjoyed  in  consequence  of  his 
official  position  and  the  pleasant  relations  established  with 
the    Turkish   authorities   at  three    previous    visits    to   this 


34  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

neighborhood  were  now  utilized  by  Rich  to  satisfy  his 
curiosity  and  scientific  interest  in  the  large  mounds  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Tigris,  opposite  Mosul. 

Tradition  Identified  them  with  ancient  Nineveh,  as  stated 
above  {pp.  7-12).  Yet  doubts  as  to  the  correctness  and 
continuity  of  the  local  tradition,  as  already  expressed  by 
Jean  Otter,  were  justified,  as  long  as  the  latter  had  not  been 
corroborated  by  convincing  facts.  They  were  first  adduced 
by  Rich,  who,  by  a  careful  topographical  survey  of  the  ruins 
here  grouped  together  and  bv  a  close  examination  of  all 
the  large  hewn  stones,  inscribed  slabs,  burnt  bricks,  and 
other  smaller  antiquities  accidentally  found  by  the  natives, 
demonstrated  beyond  doubt  that  all  these  vestiges  were  of 
the  same  general  age  and  character  ;  that  they  belonged  to 
a  powerful  nation,  which,  like  the  Babylonians,  employed 
cuneiform  script  for  its  writing  ;  and  that  the  original  area 
of  the  ancient  city,  represented  by  the  two  large  mounds, 
Qoyunjuk  and  Nebi  Yunus,  and  enclosed  by  three  walls  on 
the  east  and  by  one  wall  each  on  the  three  other  sides,  was 
"  about  one  and  a  half  to  two  miles  broad  and  four  miles 
long"  —  strong  reasons,  indeed,  in  support  of  the  local  tradi- 
tion and  the  general  belief  expressed  by  so  manv  travellers. 

Twenty-eight  years  later  his  famous  countryman,  Layard, 
was  enabled  to  excavate  this  site  methodically  and  to  make 
those  startling  discoveries  which  restored  the  lost  civiliza- 
tion of  the  Assyrian  empire  to  the  astonished  world.  But 
it  will  always  remain  the  great  merit  of  Rich  to  have  placed 
the  floating  local  tradition  upon  a  scientific  basis,  to  have 
determined  the  real  significance  of  the  large  Assyrian 
mounds  in  general,  and  to  have  prepared  the  way  for  their 
thorough  exploration  by  his  important  maps  and  accurate 
description. 

In  returning  from  Mosul  to  Baghdad  Rich  used  the 
kelek^  as  on  two  previous  occasions,  in  order  to  obtain  more 

^  A  native  raft  composed  of  goat-skins  inflated  with  air,  and  by  reeds  or 


DURING   19TH    CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA       35 


exact  bearings  of  the  frequent  windings  of  the  river,  to  fix 
the  situations  of  ruins  and  other  places  on  its  embankments, 
and  to  correct  and  supplement  his  former  measurements. 
On  the  basis  of  the  rich  material  thus  brought  together 
personally,  he  drew  the  first  useful  map  of  the  course  of  the 
Tigris  from  Mosul  to  a  point  about  eighteen  miles  to  the 
north  of  Baghdad,  a  map  in  every  wav  far  superior  to  that 
of  Carsten  Niebuhr,  which  rests  entirely  upon  information, 
and  that  of  Beauchamp,  which  in  all  essential  features  must 
be  regarded  as  a 
mere  copy  of  the 
latter's. 

Previouslv  he 
had  surveyed  a 
considerable  por- 
tion of  the  Eu- 
phrates, •c7'2.,from 
Hit  to  about  the 
thirty  -  third  de- 
gree north  lati- 
tude. All  his 
material  was  later 
incorporated  into 
the  results  obtained  bv  the  British  Euphrates  expedition,  and 
in  1849  edited  by  Colonel  Chesnev,  its  commander,  as  sheets 
VI.  and  VII.  of  his  magnificent  series  of  maps  of  the  Eu- 
phrates and  Tigris  valleys. 

After  the  untimely  death  of  Rich  in  the  fall  of  1821,  his 
Oriental  antiquities,  coins,  and  an  extraordinary  collection  of 
eight  hundred  manuscripts  ^  w^ere  purchased  by  the  English 

ropes  fastened  close  together  to  a  frame  of  rough  logs.  On  one  part  ot  this 
very  ancient  means  of  navigation  a  kind  of  hut  covered  with  matting  is 
generally  raised  as  a  necessary  shelter  against  rain  and  sun. 

1  According  to  Forshall,  3  of  these  are  in  Greek,  59  in  Syriac,  8  in 
Carshunic,  389  in  Arabic,  231  in  Persian,   108  in  Turkish,  2   in  Armenian, 


Kelek  or  Native  Raft  composed  of  Goat-Skins 


36  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Parliament  for  the  use  of  the  British  Museum.  The  frag- 
ments of  clav  and  stone  which  he  had  gathered  so  scrupu- 
lously from  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  ruins  filled  a  compara- 
tively small  space,  and  for  the  greater  part  at  present  have 
little  but  historical  value.  But  these  small  beginnings  con- 
tained in  them  the  powerful  germ  which  in  due  time  pro- 
duced the  rich  treasures  now  filling  the  halls  of  the  London 
Museum. 

After  the  fundamental  work  of  Rich  little  was  left  for  the 
average  European  traveller  to  report  on  the  ruins  of  Baby- 
lon and  Nineveh,  unless  he  possessed  an  extraordinary  gift 
of  observation  and  discrimination,  combined  with  experience 
and  technical  training,  archaeological  taste,  and  a  fair  acquaint- 
ance with  the  works  of  the  classical  writers  and  the  native 
historians  and  geographers.  Among  the  men  to  whom  in 
som'e  way  or  other  we  are  indebted  for  new  information  con- 
cerning the  geography  and  topography  of  ancient  Assyria 
and  Babylonia  at  the  very  time  when  Rich  himself  was  car- 
rying on  his  investigations,  the  two  following  deserve  our 
special  attention. 

J.     S.    BUCKINGHAM 

It  was  in  the  year  1816,  when,  on  his  way  to  India,  after 
a  long  and  adventurous  journey  from  Egypt  through  Pales- 
tine, Syria,  and  the  adjacent  districts  east  of  the  Jordan, 
Buckingham  had  arrived  at  xA.leppo.  Soon  aftervyards  he 
joined  the  caravan  of  a  rich  Moslem  merchant,  with  whom 
by  way  of  Urfa  and  Mardin  he  travelled  to  Mosul,  "  adopt- 
ing the  dress,  manners,  and  language  of  the  country  "  for  the 
sake  of  greater  safety  and  convenience.  A  few  days  before 
the  caravan  reached  the  Tigris,  it  was  overtaken  by  two 
Turkish  Tartars  in  charge  of  papers  from  the  British  ambas- 

and  I  in  Hebrew.  A  list  of  the  Syriac  MSS.,  accompanied  by  a  briet  descrip- 
tion, is  given  by  Forshall  on  pp.  306-311  of  vol.  ii.  of  Rich's  "  Narrative 
of  a  Residence  in  Koordistan." 


DURING  19T11  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       37 

sador  in  Constantinople  to  Mr.  Rich,  then  English  Resident 
at  Baghdad.  Buckingham  decided  at  once  to  profit  by  the 
opportunity,  so  unexpectedly  offered,  of  travelling  in  com- 
parative safety  through  a  country  in  which  he  had  met  with 
so  much  lawlessness  and  interference.  Sacrificing,  therefore, 
his  personal  comfort  to  speed  and  safety,  he  completed  his 
journey  in  the  company  of  the  two  Tartars.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  new  arrangement,  however,  he  could  spend 
only  two  days  at  Mosul,  and  devote  but  a  few  morning 
hours  immediately  before  his  departure  to  a  hasty  inspection 
of  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  which  for  this  reason  contributed 
nothing  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  site  of  this  ancient 
city.  In  the  oppressive  heat  of  a  Mesopotamian  summer, 
and  deserted  on  the  road  by  one  of  his  Tartars,  he  finally 
arrived  at  Baghdad,  where,  in  the  congenial  atmosphere  of 
Rich's  hospitable  house,  he  found  the  necessary  encourage- 
ment and  assistance  in  executing  his  plan  of  paying  a  visit 
to  some  of  the  principal  mounds  of  ancient  Babylonia. 

Accompanied  by  Mr.  Bellino,  the  well-informed  secretary 
to  the  Residency,  he  at  first  examined  the  ruins  of 'Aqarquf, 
of  which  he  has  left  us  a  more  critical,  correct,  and  compre- 
hensive account  than  any  of  the  preceding  travellers,  even 
Niebuhr  and  Olivier  not  excluded.  From  the  numerous 
fragments  of  brick  and  pottery  and  other  vestiges  of  former 
buildings  scattered  around  the  shapeless  mass  of  the  de- 
tached ruin  he  recognized  with  Olivier  that  near  this  so- 
called  "  Tower  of  Nimrod  "  ^  there  must  have  stood  a  city 
to  which  a  large  canal  (the  'Isa),  unitmg  the  two  great  rivers, 

^  One  of  the  designations  commonly  given  to  this  ruin  by  the  Arabs  (comp. 
above,  p.  i6,  note  2,  and  Rich's  "Memoirs,"  p.  80).  'Aqarquf  has  no 
satisfactory  etymology  in  Arabic.  Possibly  it  is  only  the  badly  mutilated  old 
Babylonian  name  of  the  city.  Comp.  Buckingham,  **  Trav.,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  226, 
footnote,  and  Ker  Porter,  "Travels,"  vol.  ii. ,  pp.  276,  279.  A  learned 
Arab  of  Baghdad,  whom  Buckingham  consulted  (/.  r.,  p.  239),  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  explain  it  as  "  the  place  of  him  who  rebelled  against  God."  Two 
other  etymologies  are  quoted  by  Yaqut  in  his  geographical  dictionary. 


445075 


38  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

conveyed  the  necessary  supply  of  water.  To  judge  from 
the  materials  and  the  style  of  the  principal  building  the 
whole  settlement  is  of  Babylonian  origin.  Accordingly,  the 
theory  of  Niebuhr,  who  believed  the  lofty  ruin  to  be  an 
artificial  elevation  on  which  one  of  the  early  caliphs  of  Bagh- 
dad, or  even  one  of  the  Persian  kings  of  El-Mada'in, 
had  erected  a  country  house,  to  enjoy  from  such  a  height 
a  breeze  of  cool  and  fresh  air  during  the  sultry  summer 
months  in  the  Babylonian  plain,  is  improbable.  It  was 
rather  Buckingham's  firm  conviction  that  the  building  re- 
presents the  "  remains  of  some  isolated  monument  either  of 
a  sepulchral  or  religious  nature."  From  the  fact  that  the 
"  present  shapeless  form  having  so  large  a  base,  and  being 
proportionatelv  so  small  at  the  top,  seemed  nearer  to  that 
of  a  much  worn  pyramid  than  any  other,"  ^  and  from  his 
observation  that  a  much  larger  mass  of  the  fallen  fragments 
of  the  top  would  be  visible  around  the  base  if  it  had  been 
a  square  tower,  he  inferred  correctly  that  the  often  described 
ruin  was  originally  a  step  pyramid  similar  to  that  found  at 
Saqqara  in  Egypt.-  Though  the  interior  of  the  solid  ruin 
of 'Aqarquf  is  composed  of  unbaked  bricks,  "  its  exterior  sur- 
face seems  to  have  been  coated  with  furnace-burnt  ones, 
many  of  which,  both  whole  and  broken,  are  scattered  about 
the  foot  of  the  pile."  The  real  character  of  Babylonian 
stage-towers  at  that  time  having  not  yet  been  disclosed 
by  the  excavations,  it  was  only  natural  that  Buckingham, 
well  acquainted  with  the  pyramids  of  Egypt  as  he  was,  and 
once  having  recognized  the  original  form  of  the  struc- 
ture at  'Aqarquf  as  a  step-pyramid  or  stage-tower,  should 
have  regarded  the  latter  as  an  ancient  royal  tomb  rather 
than  as  the  most  conspicuous  part  of  a  Babylonian  temple. 
According  to  inscribed  bricks   later  discovered  all  around 

1  Comp.  the  four  different  views  given  by  Ker  Porter  on  p.  227   of  his 
richly  illustrated  work  quoted  below,  and  the  illustration  facing  p.   i  5  above. 
^  See  the  illustration  given  below  under  Egypt. 


DURING  lOnr  CEXTURY :   ASSYRIA   AXD   liAIiYLOXIA      39 

the  central  ruin  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  the  city  whose 
stage-tower  is  represented  by  'Aqarquf  was  called  Dur- 
Kurigalzu.' 

Two  davs  later  Buckingham  and  Bellino  —  the  former  in 
the  disguise  of  a  Bedouin  acting  as  the  guide  of  the  latter  — 
were  on  their  wav  to  the  ruins  of  Babylon.  As  soon  as  the 
Mujeliba  came  into  view,  they  turned  away  from  the  regu- 
lar caravan  road  to  Hilla,  subjecting  the  whole  complex  of 
mounds  along  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Euphrates  to  a  care- 


j«^a. 


Babil.  West  Face,  as  it  appeared  in  iSll 

ful  examination.  In  everv  detail  Buckingham  was  able  to  cor- 
roborate the  description  and  measurements  of  Rich,  also  shar- 
ing his  view  that  this  most  northern  pile  of  ruins  could  never 
have  represented  the  tower  of  Belus,  as  had  been  so  vigor- 
ously maintained  by  Major  Rennell.  He  pointed  out  that 
the  appearance  of  walls  and  portions  of  buildings  on  its  sum- 
mit apparently  constructed  at  different  periods,  the  small 
quantitv  of  rubbish  accumulated  around  its  base,  and  the 

^  For  a  brief  sketch  of  the  history  of  exploration  of  the  ruins  ot  'Aqarquf, 
see  Ritter,  Die  Erdkunde,  vol.  xi.,  pp.  847—852. 


40  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

remains  of  brickwork  and  masonry  visible  near  the  surface 
on  the  northern  and  western  sides  at  the  foot  of  the  heap, 
proved  beyond  doubt  that  this  mound  "  was  never  built  on 
to  a  much  greater  height  than  that  at  which  its  highest  part 
now  stands,"  and  for  this  very  reason  could  not  in  any  re- 
spect correspond  to  the  famous  tower  for  which  it  had  been 
frequently  taken.  These  features  just  mentioned,  "added  to 
the  circumstance  of  its  being  evidently  surrounded  by  ditches, 
and  perhaps  walls,  with  its  situation  within  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  of  the  river,  are  strong  arguments  in  favour  of  its  being 
the  castellated  palace  described  "  by  Diodorus  Siculus. 

After  a  satisfactory  inspection  of  all  the  details  connected 
with  the  second  mound,  called  El-Oasr,  Buckingham  came 
to  the  conclusion  arrived  at  by  Rich  that  this  ruin  repre- 
sented the  remains  of  an  (other)  "extensive  palace;"  but 
differing  somewhat  from  the  view  of  his  predecessor,  he  was 
inclined  to  identify  the  hanging  gardens  with  a  part  of  the 
ruins  of  El-Qasr,  or  possibly  even  'Omran  ibn  'Ali.  The 
neighborhood  of  the  river,  a  peculiar  brick  here  discov- 
ered by  Rich,^  and  the  famous  single  tree  called  Athla^ 
standing  close  to  the  broken  walls  and  piers  of  El-Qasr, 
seemed  to  him  favorable  to  his  theory  of  locating  the  hang- 
ing gardens  not  very  far  from  the  latter. 

Not  satisfied  with  a  mere  examination  of  the  principal 
mounds  of  Babylon,  the  two  companions  set  out  towards 
the  east  to  search  for  the  original  walls  of  the  great  metro- 
polis. In  order  to  fully  understand  their  efforts  and  to  judge 
Buckingham's  final  and  serious  mistake  in  the  proper  light 

^  Engraved  with  a  certain  religious  symbol,  a  kind  of  upright  pole  with 
pointed  top,  often  found  in  bas-reliefs  and  seal-cvlinders,  but  by  Buckingham 
and  others  mistaken  for  a  spade.  Comp.  Rich's  "  Memoirs,"  p.  60,  note*, 
and  Ker  Porter,  "Travels,"  vol.  ii.,  pi.  77,  c. 

^  If  not  a  distinct  species,  at  least  a  beautiful  variety  of  Tamarix  Orient alis 
(^tarfa)  according  to  the  Arabic  Materia  Medica  of  Ibn  Kibti,  the  Bagh- 
dad! (A.  H.  71  i).  Comp.  Mignan,  "  Travels,"  p.  258  ;  Sonini,  "Trav- 
els in  Egypt,"  pp.   247,  seq.  ;    Forskal,  Flora  ^gfptiaco- Arabica,  p.  206. 


DURING   19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND   BABYLONIA      41 

of  his  period,  we  must  remember  that  the  two  most  able 
geographers — D'Anville  and  Major  Rennell  —  who  had 
previously  ventured  to  express  an  opinion  on  the  original 
size  of  Babylon,  as  described  by  the  classical  writers,  had  dif- 
fered so  radically  in  their  conclusions  that  new  material  was 
required  to  establish  the  entire  correctness  of  Herodotus's 
measures,  in  which  Rennell  and  Buckingham  firmly  believed. 
In  favor,  therefore,  of  giving  to  Babylon  the  full  extent  as- 
signed to  it  by  its  earliest  historian,  Buckingham  found  no 
difficulty  in  reclaiming  the  great  network  of  ancient  canals 
to  the  east  of  Babylon,  flanked  by  very  high  embankments 
and  often  filled  with  mud  and  sand  far  above  the  level  of  the 
surrounding  plain,  as  "  the  remains  of  buildings  originally 
disposed  in  streets,  and  crossing  each  other  at  right  angles, 
with  immense  spaces  of  open  and  level  ground  on  each  side 
of  them." 

For  more  than  two  hours,  in  pursuit  of  their  phantom, 
the  two  travellers  had  been  riding  over  the  parched  and 
burning  plain  covered  with  burnt  brick  and  pottery  and  an 
occasional  detached  heap  of  rubbish.  The  heat  of  the  at- 
mosphere had  meanwhile  become  so  intense  and  the  air  so 
suffiDcating  and  almost  insufferable  that  Bellino,  completely 
exhausted  with  thirst  and  fatigue,  declined  to  proceed  any 
farther.  Buckingham  left  his  companion  in  the  shade  of  a 
Mohammedan  tomb,  himself  pushing  ahead,  determined  to 
reach  a  pyramidal  mound  called  El-Ohemir,^  and  previously 
visited  only  by  Dr.  Hine  and  Captain  Lockett,  ot  the  Brit- 
ish Residency  at  Baghdad,  which  he  regarded  as  of  the  most 

1  Differently  rendered  by  the  travellers  as  ^/  Hheimar  (Rich,  Buck- 
ingham), Al-H^mer  (Ker  Porter),  El-Hamir  (Mignan),  (^El-)Ohemir 
(Frazer),  Vhaimir  (lit.  transL),  in  accordance  with  a  more  or  less  successflil 
endeavor  to  reproduce  the  present  Arabic  pronunciation  of  the  word.  The 
name,  derived  from  Arabic  ahmar,  "  red,"  designates  the  hill  as  "  the  reddish 
one  "  (diminutive)  from  its  most  characteristic  feature,  the  deep  red  brickwork 
crowning  its  summit.  A  similar  name  is  El-Homaira  (dimin,  of  the  fem. 
hamra),  one  of  the  smaller  mounds  of  Babvlon,  east  of  El-Qasr. 


42  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

importance  for  the  final  solution  of  his  problem.  Half  an 
hour  after  quitting  Bellino  he  reached  the  foot  of  the  steep 
mound  of  which  he  had  been  so  eagerly  in  search.  But  he 
could  remain  only  a  few  minutes.  Clouds  of  dust  and  sand 
filling  his  eyes,  mouth,  ears,  and  nostrils,  and  rendering  it 
difficult  and  painful  to  look  around,  drove  him  soon  from 
the  summit,  which  he  judged  to  be  seventy  to  eighty  feet 
high.  Yet  this  brief  examination  of  the  conical  red  mound 
and  its  surroundings  had  sufficed  to  enable  him  to  furnish  a 
general  description  of  the  size  and  character  of  the  ruins  and 
to  state  his  conviction  that  this  elevated  pile,  though  nearly 
eight  miles  distant  from  the  Euphrates,  was  the  extreme  east- 
ern boundary  of  ancient  Babylon,  and  itself  a  portion  of  its 
celebrated  wall.  In  support  of  his  extraordinary  theory, 
which  rested  entirely  upon  the  partly  misunderstood  state- 
ments of  Herodotus,  he  endeavored  to  show  that  the  pecul- 
iar white  layers  of  ashes,  occurring  at  certain  intervals  in  the 
principal  ruin  of  baked  bricks,  corresponded  precisely  to  "  the 
composition  of  heated  bitumen  mixed  with  the  tops  [rather 
stems  !]  of  reeds,"  so  particularly  mentioned  by  the  Greek 
historian  as  the  characteristic  cement  used  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  ditch  and  walls  of  Babylon. 

After  their  late  arrival  at  Hilla,  the  two  travellers  pre- 
sented a  letter  of  introduction  received  from  Rich  to  a  pow- 
erful Arab  residing  in  the  sam.e  town.  Through  his  assist- 
ance they  were  enabled  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  lofty  ruins  on 
the  western  side  of  the  Euphrates,  which  had  been  "  identi- 
fied "  by  Niebuhr  and  Rich  with  the  "  Tower  of  Belus," 
so  often  described  by  the  classical  writers.  With  regard  to 
the   name  of  this  ruin  Buckingham  states  correctly  ^   that, 

1  As  I  personallv  have  been  able  to  verify  repeatedly  in  that  neighborhood 
in  recent  years.  Comp.,  also.  Abbe  De  Beauchamp,  above,  p.  20.  The 
same  name,  El-Birs,  is  the  only  one  given  by  Mas'udi  in  the  chapter  where 
he  describes  the  course  of  the  Euphrates.  Similarly  the  Qamus  gives  Birs  as 
the  name  of  a  town  or  district  between  Hilla  and  Kufa  still  known. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      43 

though  generally  referred  to  as  Birs  Nimrud  by  the  differ- 
ent travellers,  it  should  properly  be  called  only  El-Birs. 
"  Whenever  Nimrud  is  added,  it  is  merely  because  the  in- 
habitants of  this  country  are  as  fond  of  attributing  every- 
thing to  this  '  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord,'  as  the  in- 
habitants of  Egypt  are  to  Pharaoh,  or  those  of  Syria  to  Sol- 
omon." Both  Rich  and  Buckingham  assumed  with  good 
reason  that  the  word  Birs  has  no  satisfactory  etymology  in 
Arabic,  —  the  latter,  for  very  apparent  reasons,  proposing 
to  regard  it  as  a  corruption  of  "  Belus,  its  original  name," 
which  of  course  is  out  of  the  question.  Since  the  extensive 
ruins  of  El-Birs  have  been  identified  with  the  remains  of  the 
Babylonian  city  of  Borsippa,  we  can  safely  assert  that  Birs  or 
Burs  —  as  it  is  pronounced  occasionallv  —  is  nothing  but  a 
local  corruption  of  Borsippa,^  just  as  the  first  half  of  the 
modern  Egyptian  village  of  Saft  el-Henne  has  preserved 
the  name  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  god  Sopt,  whose  sanctuarv, 
Per-Sopt,  was  situated  there. 

On  the  basis  of  a  careful  study  of  the  memoirs  of  Rich 
and  Rennell,  and  after  a  close  personal  inspection  of  the 
ruins,  Buckingham  at  once  recognized  the  original  building 
represented  by  the  mound,  on  which  the  vitrified  wall  occu- 
pies such  a  conspicuous  place,  as  a  stage-tower.  He  went 
even  farther  than  Rich  by  pointing  out  that  four  stages, 
"receding one  within  another,  are  to  be  distinctlv  traced,  on 
the  north  and  east  sides,  projecting  through  the  general 
rubbish  of  its  face."  Determined  as  he  was  to  prove  the 
accuracy  of  Herodotus'  account  of  the  enormous  area  of 
Babylon,  and  not  less  influenced  than  Rich  by  the  magni- 
tude of  the  lofty  ruin,  which,  according  to  his  idea,  could  not 
possibly  have  been  excluded  bv  the  walls  from  the  territorv 
of  the  ancient  city,  he  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to 
take  the  ruin  of  El-Birs  for  its  western  extreme,  as  he  had 

^  Already  recognized  as  such  by  Captain  Mignan,  ♦•  Travels  in  Chaldcea," 
London,  1829,  pp.   258,  se^. 


44  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

taken  the  ruin  at  El-Ohemir  for  its  eastern.  At  the  same 
time  he  accepted  and  strengthened  the  theory  of  Rich,  who 
had  identified  El-Birs  with  the  famous  Tower  of  Babel, 
however  contrary  to  the  very  explicit  statement  of  Arrian  : 
"  The  Temple  of  Belus  is  situated  in  the  heart  of  Babylon." 

SIR     ROBERT    KER     PORTER 

One  of  the  greatest  mines  of  information  concerning  the 
life  and  manners  of  the  people  of  Western  Asia  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  last  century,  and  also  with  regard  to  the 
monuments,  inscriptions,  and  other  antiquities  then  known 
to  exist  in  Persia  and  Babylonia,  is  the  magnificent  work  of 
Sir  Robert  Ker  Porter,  "  Travels  in  Georgia,  Persia,  Arme- 
nia, Ancient  Babylonia,  etc.,  etc.,  during  the  years  1817- 
20,"  ^  equally  remarkable  for  the  "  truth  in  what  the  author 
relates,"  and  the  "  fidelity  in  what  he  copies  "  and  illustrates 
by  his  numerous  drawings,  portraits,  and  sketches.  From 
childhood  loving  and  practising  the  arts,  he  had  become  a 
famous  painter  of  international  reputation,  whose  eminent 
talents,  striking  personality,  and  final  marriage  with  a  Rus- 
sian princess  had  secured  for  him  a  social  standing  which 
enabled  him,  by  his  pen  and  brush,  to  reach  circles  hitherto 
but  little  influenced  by  the  books  of  ordinary  travellers  and 
the  scientific  and  often  dry  investigations  of  men  of  the 
tvpe  of  Otter,  Niebuhr,  Beauchamp,  and  Rich.  In  his  pop- 
ularization of  a  subject  which  so  far  had  stirred  the  minds 
of  only  a  limited  class  of  people,  and  in  appealing,  by  his 
religious  sentiment,  the  manner  of  his  style,  and  the  accurate 
representation  of  what  he  had  observed,  not  less  to  the  men 
of  science  and  religion  than  to  the  aristocratic  circles  of 
Europe,  on  whose  interest  and  financial  support  the  resur- 
rection of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  chiefly  depended,  lies  the 
significance  of  Ker  Porter  as  a  Babylonian  explorer. 

^  Two  volumes,  London,   1821,   1822. 


DURING   19™  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      45 

After  extensive  travels  through  Georgia  and  Persia,  in 
the  course  of  which  the  great  monuments  of  Naqs-i-Rustam 
and  Persepolis  had  received  his  special  attention,  Porter 
arrived  at  Baghdad  in  October,  181 8.  About  two  years 
previously  Buckingham  had  visited  the  same  region,  though 
by  reason  of  peculiar  circumstances  ^  the  latter's  work  could 
not  be  published  until  eleven  years  later.  Compared  with 
the  clear  statements  and  sober  facts  presented  by  his  pre- 
decessors. Porter's  book  is  sometimes  deficient  in  definite 
information,  —  pious  meditations  and  personal  speculations 
occasionally  becoming  the  undesirable  substitutes  for  an 
intelligent  description,  judicial  discrimination,  and  logical 
reasoning.  Yet,  with  all  these  defects,  due  less  to  his  lack 
of  good  will  and  personal  devotion  than  to  his  unfamiliarity 
with  the  Oriental  languages  and  the  absence  of  a  proper 
technical  training,  Porter  will  always  hold  his  distinct  place 
in  the  history  of  Babylonian  exploration. 

During  the  six  weeks  which  he  spent  under  the  inspiring 
influence  of  Rich  at  the  British  Residency  in  Baghdad,  he 
examined  the  four  Babylonian  ruins  at  that  time  standing 
in  the  centre  of  public  interest :  'Aqarquf,  El-Birs,  Babil, 
and  El-Ohemir.  As  in  the  case  of  Buckingham,  Bellino 
became  his  regular  companion  on  his  excursions  to  the 
ruins  just  mentioned.  What  his  description  of  'Aqarquf 
lacks  in  new  elements  and  successful  combination  is  made 
good  by  the  four  excellent  drawings  which  he  has  left  us 
of  the  four  different  sides  of  that  conspicuous  landmark  at 
the  northern  boundary  of  ancient  Babylonia.  Of  interest 
also  is  his  remark  as  to  the  original  purpose  of  the  ruin  in 
question,  as  coming  nearer  to  the  truth  than  that  of  any 
previous    traveller :  "  I   should   suppose  the  mass  we  now 

^  Arising  from  the  scandalous  and  malicious  accusations  of  Buckingham's 
former  travelling  companion,  W.  |.  Bankes,  who  in  the  most  contemptible 
manner  prevented  the  publication  of  his  book,  at  the  same  time  endeavoring 
to  ruin  the  literary  character  of  the  author,  as  he  had  ruined  him  sociallv  and 
financially  in  India. 
5 


46  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

see  to  be  no  more  than  the  base  of  some  loftier  superstruc- 
ture, probably  designed  for  the  double  use  of  a  temple  and 
an  observatory  ;  a  style  of  sacred  edifice  common  with  the 
Chaldeans,  and  likely  to  form  the  principal  object  in  every 
city  and  town  devoted  to  the  idolatry  of  Belus  and  the 
worship  of  the  stars." 

Protected  by  more  than  a  hundred  well-armed  horsemen 
of  the  Turkish  armv  against  any  possible  molestation  from 
the  marauding  Bedouins,  who  were  at  open  war  with  the 
governor  of  Baghdad,  Porter  had  the  rare  opportunity  of 
inspecting  the  huge  mass  of  buildings  known  as  El-Birs  or 
Birs  Nimrud,  with  a  feeling  of  absolute  security  and  com- 
fort. Rich  and  Buckingham  having  described  the  more 
essential  features  of  this  grandest  of  all  Babylonian  ruins 
before,  our  traveller  had  nothing  to  add,  but  the  more  to 
speculate  on  the  probable  age  and  cause  of  the  destruction  of 
this  "  Tower  of  Belus,"  of  which  again  he  left  us  four  fairly 
good  drawings,  though  in  certain  prominent  details  decidedly 
inferior  to  the  pen-and-ink  sketch  published  by  Rich.  It 
was  Porter's  firm  conviction  that  the  extraordinary  ruin  as 
it  now  stands,  "  and  doubtless  representing  the  Tower  of 
Babel,"  is  the  work  of  three  different  periods  and  builders. 
As  over  against  the  fundamental  investigations  of  his  two 
contemporaries,  who  by  their  accurate  description  and  sober 
judgment  of  Babylonian  ruins  so  favorably  contrasted  with 
the  uncritical  method  of  the  early  travellers,  we  find  in  Por- 
ter's account  of  Birs  (Nimrud)  a  certain  inclination  to  fall 
back  into  the  outlived  fashion  of  previous  centuries.  Ac- 
cording to  his  view,  the  original  tower  built  by  Nimrod  and 
"  partially  overturned  bv  the  Divine  wrath,"  is  still  to  be 
recognized  in  the  four  lowest  stages  of  the  present  remains. 
*•  In  this  ruinous  and  abandoned  state  most  likely  the 
tower  remained  till  Babylon  was  refounded  by  Semiramis, 
who,  covering  the  shattered  summit  of  the  great  pile  with 
some  new  erection,  would  there  place  her  observatory  and 


DURING  19 rn   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      47 

altar  to  Bel."  Nebuchadrezzar,  finding  "  the  stupendous 
monument  of  Babel  "  in  the  manner  in  which  it  was  left  by 
the  "  Assyrian  queen,"  and  "  constituting  it  the  chief  em- 
bellishment of  his  imperial  city,"  restored  the  temple  "  on 
its  old  solid  foundations."  But  as  "  it  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that  Xerxes,  in  his  destruction  of  the  temple,  overturned  the 
whole  of  what  had  been  added  by  the  Babylonian  monarchs, 
it  does  not  seem  improbable  that  what  we  now  see  on  the 
fire-blasted  summit  of  the  pile,  its  rent  wall,  and  scattered 
fragments,  with  their  partially  vitrified  masses,  may  be  a 
part  of  that  very  stage  of  the  primeval  tower  which  felt  the 
effects  of  the  Divine  vengeance,"  Not  many  years  after- 
wards poor  Porter's  fantastic  speculations  were  reduced  to 
what  they  were  really  worth  by  the  discovery  that  most  of 
the  vitrified  bricks  bear  the  common  inscription  of  Nebu- 
chadrezzar. 

Ten  days  later,  when  Ker  Porter  paid  a  second  visit  to 
the  Birs,  he  had  the  unique  spectacle  of  seeing  "  three  ma- 
jestic lions  taking  the  air  upon  the  heights  of  the  pyramid  " 
—  a  veritable  illustration  of  Isaiah's  prophetic  word  :  "  Wild 
beasts  of  the  desert  shall  lie  there;  and  their  houses  shall  be 
full  of  doleful  creatures"  (13  :  21).  But  this  time  his  stay 
did  not  last  very  long.  While  leisurely  surveying  the  bound- 
less desert  from  the  sublime  eminence  on  which  he  stood, 
a  dark  mass  came  up  like  a  cloud  from  the  horizon.  It 
was  soon  discovered  that  a  body  of  Bedouins  was  rapidly 
moving  towards  their  place  of  observation,  which  they  now 
hastily  left,  chased  by  the  Arab  pursuers  to  the  very  walls 
of  Hi'lla. 

Quite  different  from  what  he  has  to  relate  of  Birs  (Nim- 
rud)  is  Porter's  account  of  the  ruins  of  Babvlon.  His  eye 
seems  sharpened  to  discover  the  slightest  peculiarity  ;  with  a 
judicious  discrimination  he  sets  forth  all  the  characteristic 
features  of  the  bewildering  mass  ;  his  expression  is  clear,  his 
language  precise,  and  yet  betraying  all  the  enthusiasm  with 


48  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

which  he  approaches  his  subject.  In  this  regard  and  in  his 
earnest  endeavor  to  define  the  enormous  extent  of  these 
ruins  on  both  banks  of  the  river  with  accuracy,  his  graphic 
description  may  well  be  placed  alongside  those  of  Rich 
and  Buckingham,  which  in  several  details  our  author  even 
supplements.  Like  his  predecessors  he  adduces  ample 
proof  that  the  Mujeliba  can  never  be  taken  for  the  remains 
of  the  "  Tower  of  Babel."  The  absence  of  anv  trace  of  a 
sacred  enclosure  on  its  southern  side,  and  of  any  consider- 
able rubbish  to  represent  the  remains  of  the  temple  and 
residences  of  the  priests  around  its  base,  the  comparatively 
low  elevation  of  the  whole  platform,  the  ruins  of  extensive 
buildings  on  its  summit,  the  discovery  of  certain  subterra- 
nean passages  and  objects  in  its  interior,  its  very  command- 
ing position  and  strategic  importance  for  the  defence  of 
the  city,  —  in  fact  the  whole  situation  and  peculiar  stvle  of 
this  gigantic  mass  of  brick-formed  earth  "  mark  it  out  to 
have  been  the  citadel  of  the  fortified  new  palace  of  the 
ancient  authors." 

He  traced  Nebuchadrezzar's  ancient  embankments  to 
a  considerable  length  along  the  steep  eastern  shore ;  he 
noticed  the  peculiarities  of  the  edge-inscribed  bricks  on 
the  loftv  conical  mound  of  El-Homaira  ;  he  dwelt  upon  the 
remarkable  changes  which  had  recentlv  taken  place  in 
the  appearance  of  the  Qasr  "  from  the  everlasting  digging 
in  its  apparently  inexhaustible  quarries,"  and  he  expressed 
his  strong  belief  that  this  latter  mound  with  its  adjoining 
ridges  contained  nothing  else  than  the  "  more  modern  and 
greater  palace  "  and  the  hanging  gardens. 

With  Rich  and  Buckingham,  Porter  believed  Babylon  to 
have  extended  considerably  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Euphrates,  as  far  as  Birs  (Nimrud).  In  the  expectation 
of  finding  traces  of  the  "  lesser  palace,"  he  spent  a  whole 
dav  in  examining  the  ground  to  the  north  and  west  of 
Hilla,  finallv  inclined  to  regard  a  group  of  mounds  half-way 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      49 

between  El-Qasr  and  the  Birs  as  the  possible  remains  of 
Alexander  the  Great's  temporary  abode,  from  which  in  the 
course  of  his  illness  he  was  removed  to  the  palace  on  the 
other  side,  only  to  die. 

In  order  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  the  exact  boundary  line 
of  the  metropolis  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  river,  he  visited 
El-Ohemir  and  a  number  of  mounds  in  its  neighborhood. 
Accompanied  by  Bellino  and  his  usual  strong  escort,  and 
provided  with  all  the  necessities  of  life,  he  set  out  on  a  fine 
November  morning  and  examined  the  whole  district  at  his 
leisure,  so  that  he  could  leave  us  a  much  more  satisfactory 
description  than  that  of  Buckingham,  who  had  been  at  the 
same  ruins  but  a  few  minutes  under  the  most  trying  circum- 
stances. To  Ker  Porter  we  are  likewise  indebted  for  the 
first  inscribed  brick  ^  taken  from  the  pyramidal  mound  of 
El-Ohemir,  from  which  we  learn  that  the  god  Zamama  had 
his  temple  here  restored  by  a  Babylonian  king,  probably 
Adad-ap[al-]idinnam  of  the  Pashe  dynasty,  who  lived 
about  1065  B.  c.  The  principal  ruin,  covered  with  a  mass 
of  red  brickwork,  and  exhibiting  "  four  straight  faces,  but 
unequal  and  mutilated,  looking  towards  the  cardinal  points," 
apparently  represents  the  original  stage-tower  or  ziggurrat 
of  this  temple.  From  a  marble  fragment  picked  up  by 
Bellino,  it  becomes  evident  that  the  place  must  have  occu- 
pied a  prominent  position  as  early  as  the  time  of  Hammu- 
rabi, about  one  thousand  years  earlier.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  city  buried  here  is  no  other  than  Kish,  with 
its  famous  sanctuary,  playing  such  an  important  role  at  the 
very  beginning  of  Babylonian  history.  Though  at  the  time 
unfamiliar  with  the  details  mentioned,  which  are  but  the 
product  of  subsequent  investigations.  Porter  clearly  recog- 
nized the  general  character  of  El-Ohemir  and  its  neighbor- 
ing ruins,  and,  contrary  to  Buckingham's  untenable  theory, 
regarded  it  as  entirely  out  of  question  to  suppose  that  these 

^   Published  in  his  "  Travels,"  vol.  ii.,  pi.  77,  a. 


60  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

mounds  "could  have  ever  stood  within  the  Hmits  of  Baby- 
lon or  even  formed  anv  part  of  its  great  bulwarked  exterior 
wall." 

Ker  Porter  had  spent  nearly  a  fortnight  in  examining  the 
ruins  of  Babylon  and  their  environments.  After  his  return 
to  Baghdad  he  illustrated  what  he  had  seen,  not  only  by 
drawings  of  the  most  interesting  mounds  visited  and  ob- 
jects discovered,  but,  profiting  from  the  assistance  of  Bellino, 
by  several  plates  of  cuneiform  inscriptions,  among  them 
the  fragment  of  a  large  barrel-cvlinder,  which  he  had  found 
in  the  ruins  of  the  Qasr.^ 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  our  present  sketch  to  men- 
tion all  the  different  travellers  who  during  the  first  half  of 
the  last  century  visited  the  sites  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon 
and  a  few  other  prominent  mounds  of  the  two  ancient 
empires  on  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  As  a  rule  their 
accounts  are  little  more  than  repetitions  of  facts  and  condi- 
tions even  then  well  established.  Men  like  Colonel  Mac- 
donald  Kinneir  (1808  and  i8i3)-and  Edward  Frederick 
(181 1)  had  formed  the  necessary  link  between  the  old  school 
of  travellers  in  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  accurate 
observers  and  topographical  students  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  time  was  now  drawing  rapidlv  near  when  instead 
of  the  text  of  the  classical  writers  so  ablv  interpreted  by 
Rennell  and  others,  or  the  measuring  rod  and  compass  so 
well  used  bv  Rich  and  his  immediate  successors,  to  whom  we 

^  Now  in  the  British  Museum.  In  its  preserved  portions  it  is  a  Neo- 
Babylonian  duplicate  of  certain  sections  fcol.  iii.,  15—63,  and  col.  vi. ,  44, 
to  col.  vii.,  20)  of  the  so-called  East  India  House  Inscription  ot  Nebuchad- 
rezzar, giving  a  summary  of  his  building  operations  in  Babylon  and  Borsippa. 

2  "Geographical  Memoir  of  the  Persian  Empire,"  together  with  Freder- 
ick's "  Account  of  the  present  compared  with  the  ancient  state  of  Babylon," 
pubUshed  in  the  **  Transactions  of  the  Bombay  Society,"  Bombay,  181  3, 
pp.  273—295,  and  pp.  120—139  respectively.  Comp.,  also,  Kinneir's 
"Travels  in  Asia  Minor,  Armenia,  and  Kurdistan,"  the  account  of  his 
journey  from  Constantinople  to  Basra,  in  the  year  18  13. 


DUEING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       51 

may  still  add  Captain  Keppel  (1824)/  spade  and  pickaxe 
would  be  called  upon  to  speak  the  final  word  and  settle 
those  much  discussed  topographical  questions.  At  the 
threshold  which  separates  this  last  chapter  of  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  exploration  from  the  earlier  period  just 
treated,  stand  two  men,  who  while  properly  speaking  they 
added  but  few  positive  facts  to  our  knowledge  of  ancient 
Babylonian  ruins,  yet  instinctively  felt  the  pulse  of  the 
coming  age,  and  through  their  own  personal  courage  and 
enterprising  spirit  entered  upon  the  very  road  which  ulti- 
mately led  to  success. 

CAPTAIN  ROBERT  MIGNAN 

In  the  years  1826-28,  when  Major  Taylor  was  the  East 
India  Company's  political  representative  at  Basra,  Captain 
Robert  Mignan,  in  command  of  the  escort  attached  to  the 
Resident,  made  several  archaeological  excursions  into  the 
little  known  districts  of  Persia,  'Iraq  el-'Arabi,  and  northern 
Mesopotamia.  While  each  of  these  little  expeditions  claims 
the  attention  of  the  historian  of  ancient  geography  to  a 
certain  degree,  in  this  connection  it  will  be  sufficient  to 
sketch  briefly  his  share  in  the  exploration  of  ancient  Baby- 
lonia.^ 

In  consequence  of  the  constant  quarrels  which  the  differ- 
ent Arab  tribes  were  carrying  on  among  themselves  or 
against  their  common  enemy,  the  Turkish  government, 
only  few  travellers  had  ventured  to  leave  the  regular  cara- 
van road  and  to  extend  their  researches  beyond  a  very 
limited  radius  around  Baghdad  and  Hilla.  Kinneir  and 
Keppel  had  thrown  some  light  on  certain  remarkable  ves- 
tiges   on    the  banks  of  the   Lower  Tigris,  but   the  whole 

1  "Personal  Narrative  of  Travels  in  Babylonia,  Assyria,  Media,  and 
Scythia,"  3d  ed.,  London,  iS?.y,  2  volumes. 

^  Comp.  his  "  Travels  in  Chaldaea,"  London,  1829. 


52  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

region  adjoining  the  two  rivers  between  Qorna  and  Baby- 
lon on  the  one  side,  and  Ctesiphon  and  Seleucia  on  the 
other,  needed  a  much  closer  investigation,  before  it  could 
lay  claim  to  another  title  than  that  of  a  lerra  incognita. 
Determined  to  prosecute  his  studies  on  a  line  different 
from  those  previously  followed,  Mignan  decided  to  proceed 
on  foot  from  Basra  to  Baghdad  and  Hilla,  "  accompanied  by 
six  Arabs,  completely  armed  and  equipped  after  the  fashion 
of  the  country,  and  by  a  small  boat,  tracked  by  eight  sturdy 
natives,  in  order  to  facilitate  his  researches  on  either  bank 
of  the  stream."  Accordingly  he  set  out  on  his  novel 
tour  towards  the  end  of  October,  1827.  Many  years  after- 
wards, when  exploring  the  interior  of  Southern  Babylonia, 
though  then  still  unacquainted  with  Mignan's  travels,  I 
adopted  the  same  method  of  alternate  walking  and  riding 
in  a  native  canoe  [turrada).  On  the  basis  of  my  own  past 
experience,  I  am  convinced  that  the  method  described  is 
the  onlv  one  which  in  the  end  will  accomplish  a  thorough 
exploration  of  the  marshv  interior  ot  Babylonia. 

The  independence  which  Mignan  thus  enjoyed  in  all  his 
movements  was  utilized  especially  to  satisfy  his  curiosity 
concerning  the  early  remains  occasionally  met  on  both  sides 
of  the  Tigris.  Often,  when  an  old  wall  or  an  especially 
promising  mound  attracted  his  attention,  he  stopped  a  few 
hours  to  investigate  the  place  or  to  cut  a  trench  into  the 
ruin,  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  its  age  or  discovering  its 
character.  Sixteen  days  after  his  departure  from  Basra,  and 
unmolested  on  his  way  by  the  Arabs,  he  reached  the  city 
of  the  caliphs.  Under  the  heavy  showers  of  an  early  No- 
vember rain,  he  examined  the  tower  of  'Aqarqiif,  in  a  few 
subordinate  points  even  correcting  the  accounts  of  previous 
travellers.  Then  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  ruins  of 
Babylon,  Birs,  and  Ohemir,  to  which  he  devoted  nearly  a 
w^eek  of  undivided  attention.  After  all  that  had  been  writ- 
ten  on  them,  we  cannot  expect   to  find  extraordinary  new 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       53 

discoveries  in  his  description.  Once  more  he  summed  up 
the  different  reasons,  from  which  it  may  be  safely  concluded 
that  the  great  metropolis  stood  in  the  place  assigned  to  it, 
referring  particularly  to  "  the  distances  given  by  Herodotus 
from  Is  or  Hit,  and  by  Strabo  and  the  Theodosian  tables 
from  Seleucia."  With  Buckingham  he  believed  that  Birs  and 
Ohemir  are  probably  to  be  included  in  the  original  territorv 
of  Babylon  ;  but  contrary  to  the  generally  expressed  opin- 
ion of  his  predecessors,  he  asserted  emphatically  that  Birs 
(Nimriid)  cannot  be  identified  with  the  Tower  of  Belus,  as 
"  all  ancient  authors  agree  in  placing  it  in  the  midst  of  the 
city  ;  "  and  with  good  reason  he  disclosed  as  the  real  cause 
for  the  universal  mistake  the  fact  that  "  it  more  nearly 
resembles  the  state  of  decay  into  which  we  might  suppose 
that  edifice  to  have  fallen,  after  the  lapse  of  ages,  than  any 
other  remains  within  the  circumference  of  Babylon."  Yet 
while  thus  judiciously  protesting  against  a  serious  topograph- 
ical error  of  his  predecessors,  he  himself  fell  into  another. 
Notwithstanding  all  the  strong  evidence  presented  against 
an  identification  of  the  Mujeliba  with  the  famous  tov/er,  he 
clung  to  the  exploded  theory  of  Rennell,  at  the  same  time 
transferring  the  so-called  lesser  palace  to  the  reddish  mound 
of  Homaira.  He  agreed  with  his  predecessors  only  in  the 
identification  of  the  Qasr  with  the  castellated  palace  of  Ne- 
buchadrezzar. 

But  Mignan's  new  departure  from  the  method  of  re- 
search hitherto  employed  was  not  so  much  due  to  the  cir- 
cumstance that  he  again  went  on  foot  over  the  whole  field 
from  the  Birs  to  Ohemir,  in  order  to  comprehend  all  the 
topographical  details  more  thoroughlv,  as  rather  to  the  fact 
that  he  endeavored  by  actual  small  excavations  at  the  prin- 
cipal mounds  to  discover  their  contents  and  to  find  new- 
arguments  for  his  proposed  identifications.  Sometimes  he 
was  successful  beyond  expectation.  At  the  Qasr,  e.g.,  he 
employed  no  less  than  thirty  men  to  clear  away  the  rubbish 


54  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

along  the  western  face  of  a  large  pilaster.  A  space  of 
twelve  feet  square  and  twenty  feet  deep  was  soon  removed, 
when  he  suddenly  came  upon  a  well-preserved  platform  of 
inscribed  bricks,  each  measuring  nearly  twenty  inches  square 
—  the  largest  which  so  far  had  been  discovered.  From  the 
same  clearing  he  obtained  four  seal-cylinders,  three  engraved 
gems,  and  several  silver  and  copper  coins,  one  of  Alexander 
the  Great  being  among  them ;  while  in  a  small  recess  near  a 
well-preserved  wall  of  an  unexplored  passage  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Qasr,  he  even  found  a  large  and  beautiful  in- 
scribed barrel  cylinder  /«  silu,  the  first  thus  excavated  by 
any  European  explorer. 

What  Mignan  had  done  with  regard  to  our  knowledge 
of  the  eastern  border  of  ancient  Babvlonia  was  attempted 
for  the  interior  of  the  country  by  another  Englishman. 

G.     BAILLIE    FRASER 

In  connection  with  his  travels  in  Kurdistan  and  Persia, 
which  in  no  small  degree  helped  to  shape  the  future  life  and 
career  of  a  Lavard,  Eraser  made  a  hasty  tour  through  the 
unexplored  regions  of  the  interior  of  Babvlonia.  The 
whole  trip,  on  which  he  was  accompanied  by  Dr.  Ross, 
physician  of  the  English  Residencv  at  Baghdad,  lasted  but 
one  month,  from  December  24,  1834,  to  January  22,  1835. 
Naturally  the  information  gathered  and  the  impression 
gained  had  to  be  one-sided  and  inaccurate  ;  but  neverthe- 
less his  vivid  account  was  of  considerable  value  for  the  time 
being,  as  the  greater  part  of  the  country  traversed  had  never 
been  visited  bv  anv  European  before.  Names  of  ruins  now 
so  familiar  to  every  student  of  Assyrian  are  found  for  the 
first  time  in  Eraser's  "  Travels  in  Koordistan,  Mesopota- 
mia, etc."  ^ 

^  London,  1840,  two  volumes.  For  Babylonia  comp.  vol.  ii.,  pp. 
1-165. 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       55 

After  a  brief  visit  to  the  ruins  of  Ctesiphon  and  Seleu- 
cia,  the  little  cavalcade,  numbering  fifteen  persons,  all  the 
servants  included,  proceeded  to  Babylon  and  Birs  (Nim- 
rud),  whence  by  way  of  El-Ohemir  they  turned  back  to 
the  Tigris,  which  they  reached  not  very  far  from  Tell 
Iskharie,  a  peculiar  and  most  interesting  group  of  stone- 
covered  mounds  extending  for  about  two  miles  on  both 
sides  of  the  bed  of  an  ancient  canal.  With  the  assistance 
of  two  ill-qualified  Arab  guides,  they  pushed  from  there 
through  the  Babvlonian  plain,  to-day  often  included  in  the 
general  term  of  Jezire  ("island"),  passed  Tell  Jokha  and 
Senkere  at  some  distance,  crossed  the  Shatt  el-Kar,  and, 
soon  afterwards,  the  Euphrates  with  considerable  difficulty, 
examined  the  conspicuous  mounds  of  Muqayyar,  which  had 
attracted  their  attention  as  soon  as  they  reached  the  west- 
ern bank  of"  the  great  river"  (the  so-called  Shamiye),  and 
finallv  arrived  at  S{iq  esh-Shiyiakh,  the  most  southern  point 
of  their  remarkable  travels.  After  an  unpleasant  stay  of 
several  days  with  the  shaikh  of  the  Muntefik(j),  the  party 
returned  to  Baghdad  in  nine  days,  for  the  greater  part 
nearly  following  their  old  track,  but  stopping  at  Senkere  for 
a  little  while,  passing  Warka  on  their  left,  and  observing  the 
lofty  ruin  of  Tell  (J)ide  far  away  in  the  distance.  Before  his 
final  departure  from  Baghdad,  Fraser  also  paid  a  visit  to 
the  imposing  ruin  of  'Aqarquf,  which  had  been  so  often 
described  by  previous  travellers. 

Fraser  was  the  first  who  boldly  entered  the  then  unknown 
regions  of  the  Babylonian  marshes  and  pasture  grounds 
occupied  by  roaming  Bedouins  and  the  half-settled  thievish 
and  uncouth  Ma'dan  tribes.  In  this  fact  lies  his  importance 
for  the  history  of  Babylonian  exploration.  From  his 
graphic  account  of  the  character  and  manners  of  the  present 
Arabs  and  the  nature  of  their  desolate  country,  from  his 
constant  references  to  the  manv  ancient  canals  often  inter- 
fering with   his  progress,  and  the  numerous  sites  of  former 


66'  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

cities,  towns,  and  villages,  of  which  he  found  important 
traces  everywhere,  we  gained  a  first  general  idea  of  what 
ancient  Babvlonia  must  have  been  in  the  days  of  her  splen- 
dor, and  also  what  had  become  of  this  small  but  fertile 
country  in  the  course  of  two  millenniums.  The  picture 
which  he  draws  is  anything  but  pleasing.  Where  appar- 
ently a  dense  population  and  a  high  grade  of  civilization 
had  formerly  existed,  there  prevails  at  present  nothing  but 
utter  ruin,  lawlessness,  and  poverty.  Even  the  characteris- 
tic virtues  of  the  Arabs  of  the  desert,  proclaimed  by  so  manv 
songs  and  noble  examples,  seemed  almost  unknown  or  re- 
garded as  a  mere  farce  in  the  interior  of  Babvlonia.  What 
wonder,  then,  that  Fraser,  little  acquainted  as  he  had  been 
with  Arab  life  and  manners  before,  and  suffering  consider- 
ably from  cold  and  exposure,  lack  of  food  and  water  during 
a  severe  Babylonian  January,  sums  up  his  description  of  the 
country  and  of  "all  Arabs  and  Shaikhs,  jointly  and  sev- 
erally," with  the  words  of  Burns,  mutato  nomine  :  — 

"  There  's  nothing  here  but  Arab  pride 
And  Arab  dirt  and  hunger  ; 
If  Heaven  it  was  that  sent  us  here. 
It  sure  was  in  an  anger  !  " 

So  far  the  exploration  of  Assvria  and  Babylonia  had  been 
exclusively  in  the  hands  of  private  individuals  who  pos- 
sessed great  courage  and  the  necessary  means  for  travelling 
in  districts  which  through  their  geographical  position  and  the 
notoriously  lawless  habits  of  their  inhabitants  had  offered 
most  serious  obstacles  to  an  accurate  scientific  investigation. 
It  is  true,  since  the  time  of  Niebuhr  and  Beauchamp  a  num- 
ber of  valuable  geographical  and  topographical  data  had 
gradually  been  gathered,  and  careful  measurements,  trigo- 
nometrical angles,  and  astronomical  calculations  had  more 
and  more  taken  the  place  of  former  vague  statements  and 
general  descriptions.     A  few  attempts  had  even   been  made 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND   BABYLONIA       57 

at  drawing  maps  of  the  countries  traversed,  with  the  courses 
of  rivers,  the  ranges  of  mountains,  and  the  relative  positions 
of  the  places  and  ruins  examined.  But  no  two  maps  could 
have  been  found  which  agreed  with  each  other  even  in  the 
most  essential  and  characteristic  features.  It  was  therefore 
very  evident  that  government  support  was  needed,  and 
the  methodical  survey  by  a  well-equipped  staff"  of  experts 
required,  in  order  to  change  this  unsatisfactorv  condition. 
Most  naturally  the  eyes  of  all  who  were  interested  in  the 
resurrection  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  turned  to  England, 
where  at  this  very  moment  peculiar  constellations  had  arisen 
which  were  prognostications  of  systematic  action. 

THE    EUPHRATES    EXPEDITION 

Under  the  especial  patronage  of  King  William  IV.,  in  the 
years  1835-37,  an  expedition  was  organized  by  the  British 
government,  in  order  to  survey  the  northern  part  of  Syria, 
to  explore  the  basins  of  the  rivers  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  to 
test  the  navigability  of  the  former,  and  to  examine  in  the 
countries  adjacent  to  these  great  rivers  the  markets  with 
which  the  expedition  might  be  thrown  in  contact.  The 
Suez  Canal  not  yet  existing,  England,  jealously  watched  by 
France  and  Russia,  advanced  this  important  step,  apparently 
in  the  hope  of  stirring;  the  national  energy  and  enterprise 
by  the  results  to  be  achieved  to  such  an  enthusiasm  as  to 
lead  to  establishing  regular  railway  or  steamer  communica- 
tions with  the  far  East  bv  way  of  the  Euphrates  valley,  and 
to  restoring  life  and  prosperity  to  a  region  renowned  for  its 
fertility  in  ancient  times  and  generally  regarded  as  the  seat 
of  the  earliest  civilization. 

This  expedition,  then,  owed  its  origin  mainly  to  commer- 
cial and  political  considerations,  with  the  ultimate  \new  of 
securing  the  Euphrates  valley  as  a  highway  to  India.  But 
though  its  purpose  was  a  practical   one,  it  deserves  a  more 


68  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

prominent  place  in  the  history  of  Babylonian  exploration 
and  surveying  than  is  generally  accorded  to  it  in  Assyrio- 
logical  publications,  alike  for  the  novelty  and  magnitude  of 
the  enterprise,  for  the  grand  scale  upon  which  it  was  got  up, 
for  the  difficulties  it  had  to  encounter,  and  for  the  impor- 
tance of  the  scientific  results  obtained/ 

Fifteen  officers,  including  Captain  H.  B.  Lynch  and 
William  F.  Ainsworth,  surgeon  and  geologist  to  the  expe- 
dition, formed  the  staff  of  this  great  military  undertaking 
commanded  by  Colonel  (afterwards  Major-General)  Francis 
Rawdon  Chesney,  who  had  travelled  extensively  in  West- 
ern Asia  before.  The  members  of  the  expedition  left 
Liverpool  in  February,  1835.  Large  provisions  and  the 
material  of  two  iron  steamers  accompanied  them  to  the  bay 
of  Antioch,  whence  under  the  greatest  difficulties  they  were 
transported  over  land  to  the  Upper  Kuphrates.  Somewhat 
below  the  ferry  and  castle  of  Birejik  (but  on  the  west  bank 
of"  the  great  river  ")  light  field  works  were  thrown  up,  and 
a  temporarv  station  established  under  the  name  of  Port 
William.  Long  delavs  in  the  transport  of  the  material,  car- 
ried by  841  camels  and  160  mules  from  the  seashore  to  the 
Euphrates,  heavy  rains  and  consequent  inundations,  the 
difficult  task  of  putting  the  boats  together,  and  the  severity 
of  the  fever,  which  seized  so  many  of  the  party,  consumed 
almost  the  whole  first  year.  As  it  was  found  impossible  to 
descend  the  river  during  the  winter,  the  greater  portion  of 
this  season  was  spent  in  reconnoitring  the  Taurus  and  the 
country  between  the  Euphrates  and  the  river  Balikh-Su  as 

^  Comp.  Chesnev,  "  The  Expedition  for  the  Survey  of  the  Rivers  Eu- 
phrates and  Tigris,"  2  vols.,  London,  1850  ;  Chesney,  "  Narrative  of  the 
Euphrates  Expedition,"  London,  1868  ;  and  a  volume  of  twelve  sections 
of  a  large  map,  and  two  additional  maps  of  Arabia  and  adjacent  countries, 
London,  1849.  Also  W.  F,  Ainsworth,  "  Researches  in  Assyria,  Baby- 
lonia, and  Chaldsa,  forming  part  of  the  Labours  of  the  Euphrates  Expedition," 
London,  1838,  and  the  same  author's  "A  Personal  Narrative  of  the  Eu- 
phrates Expedition,"  2  vols.,  London,  1888. 


DURING   19TII   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA       59 


far  north  as  Sammosata,  the  ancient  capital  of  Commagene, 
and  including  Urfa  (Edessa)  and  the  ruins  of  Haran. 

About  a  year  after  the  expedition  had  left  England,  the 
descent  of  the  Euphrates  was  commenced,  on  the  i6th  of 
March,  1836.  It  was  a  memorable  day  when  the  first  two 
steamboats  brought  to  these  regions,  "  Euphrates  "  and 
"  Tigris,"  left  their  moorings.  The  whole  Christian  and 
Mohammedan  population  of  the  small  town  had  turned  out 
"  to  see  an  iron  boat  swim,  and,  what  was  more,  stem 
the  current  of  the  river."  For  according  to  Chesney  and 
Ainsworth,  there  was  a  tradition  familiar  at  Birejik,  which 


The  Steamers  "  huplii  itcb       ind  "Tigris"  descending  the  Euphrates 

accompanied  the  expedition  down  the  whole  river,  that  when 
iron  should  swim  on  the  waters  of  the  Frat,  the  fall  of 
Mohammedanism  would  commence. 

The  descent  was  made  in  the  following  manner.  The 
day  before  the  steamers  started,  a  boat  was  sent  ahead  to 
examine  and  sound  the  river  for  a  distance  of  twenty  to 
thirty  miles.  "  The  officer  who  had  accomplished  his  task 
became  the  pilot  on  the  occasion  of  the  first  day's  descent, 


60  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

while  another  was  despatched  in  advance  to  become  the. 
pilot  on  the  second  day.  Thus  the  naval  officers  took  it 
by  turns  to  survey  the  river  and  to  pilot  the  vessel." 
The  detailed  bearings  of  the  river  were  taken  by  Colonel 
Chesney  from  the  steamer  itself.  At  times  exploring  tours 
and  explanatory  missions  were  sent  to  the  neighboring 
districts  of  the  Arabs,  while  at  the  same  time  the  survey 
was  carried  on  ashore  by  a  chain  of  ground  trigonometrical 
angles  across  the  principal  heights  as  they  presented  them- 
selves. 

In  the  early  afternoon  of  May  21,  1836,  the  expedi- 
tion suftered  a  most  serious  loss,  almost  at  the  same  spot 
where  many  centuries  before  the  apostate  emperor  Julian 
had  met  with  a  similar  misfortune.  The  weather  suddenly 
changed,  "  accompanied  by  a  portentous  fall  of  the  baro- 
meter. .  .  .  In  the  course  of  a  few  minutes  dense  masses 
of  black  clouds,  streaked  with  orange,  red,  and  yellow, 
appeared  coming  up  from  the  W.  S.  W.,  and  approached 
the  boats  with  fearful  velocity."  Not  far  below  the  junc- 
tion of  the  river  Khabur  (the  biblical  Habor)  with  the 
Euphrates,  during  a  brief  but  fearful  hurricane  or  simoom 
of  the  desert,  which,  turning  day  into  night,  struck  the  two 
boats  with  terrible  force,  the  "  Tigris,"  for  the  time  being 
the  flagship  of  the  little  squadron,  was  capsized,  and  rapidly 
went  to  the  muddy  bottom  of  the  foaming  river.  Twenty 
men,  including  Lieutenants  Cockburn  and  R.  B.  Lynch 
(brother  of  the  commander  of  the  "  Tigris  "),  were  drowned 
in  the  Euphrates.  Only  fourteen  of  the  crew  were  washed 
by  the  high  waves  over  the  bank  into  a  field  of  corn, 
Colonel  Chesney,  the  gallant  leader,  fortunately  being 
among  the  survivors.  Few  of  the  bodies,  mostly  disfigured 
by  vultures  bevond  recognition,  were  recovered  and  buried. 
Among  other  things  picked  up  "  was  Colonel  Chesney's 
Bible,  to  which  great  interest  attached  itself,  as  it  had 
alreadv  gone  to  the  bottom  of  the  river  when  the  Colonel 


62  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

it  does,  the  only  source  of  our  topographical  knowledge  for 
by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  course  of  the  two  rivers.  Nat- 
urally the  accuracy  attainable  for  any  map  prepared  from  a 
survey  by  water  can  only  be  relative.  Rich's  survey  of  the 
middle  course  of  the  Tigris,  carried  on  from  a  primitive  raft 
on  a  "  swift-flowing "  river,^  afterwards  incorporated  in 
Colonel  Chesney's  fundamental  work,  must  therefore  be 
even  less  accurate  than  that  of  the  staff  of  the  Euphrates 
Expedition,  conducted  from  a  well-equipped  steamer  on  a 
river  with  considerably  less  current. 

The  great  influence  which  these  maps  exercised  upon 
future  archaeological  explorations  in  the  countries  between 
the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  lies  in  the  fact  that  for  the 
first  time  they  showed  the  enormous  wealth  of  ancient  ruins, 
canals,  and  other  remains  of  former  civilizations  along  the 
entire  embankment  of  both  rivers.  Ainsworth,  who  mani- 
fested a  particular  interest  in  the  archaeology  and  history 
of  the  country,  described  carefully  what  he  saw  on  his  daily 
excursions,  thus  enabling  us  to  form  a  first  correct  idea  of 
the  difi^erence  between  the  numerous  barren  hills  crowned 
with  the  ruins  of  extensive  castles,  temples,  and  towers, 
along  the  upper  course  of  the  Euphrates,  and  the  thousands 
of  ancient  and  modern  canals,  numberless  mounds  of  baked 
and  sun-dried  bricks,  half  buried  under  the  sands  of  the 
desert  or  submerged  under  the  encroaching  water  of  the 
rivers,  turning  the  country  into  immense  swamps  for  many 
miles,  along  the  lower  course  of  both  the  Euphrates  and 
Tigris.  Through  his  "  Researches  in  Assyria,  Babylonia, 
and  Chaldaea  "  the  same  scholar  added  not  only  consider- 
ably to  our  knowledge  of  the  general  features  of  Mesopo- 
tamia and  'Iraq  el-'Arabi  (climate,  vegetation,  zoology,  and 
natural  history),  but  he  also  furnished  the  first  scientific 
treatment  of  the  latest  deposits  by  transport,  of  the  physical 
geography  and  geology  of  the  alluvial  districts  of  Babylonia, 
^  The  name  of  the  Tigris  signifies  "swift-flowing." 


DURING  19TII   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA       63 

and   of  the  geplogical  relations  of  the  bitumen  and  naphtha 
springs  characteristic  of  the  adjacent  regions. 

The  work  of  the  Euphrates  Expedition  had  been  practi- 
cally confined  to  a  survey  of  the  two  great  rivers.  The 
next  step  needed  for  the  exploration  of  Babvlonia  and 
Assvria  proper  was  to  proceed  from  the  base  established 
by  Colonel  Chesney  and  his  starF  into  the  interior  of  the 
neighboring  districts,  of  which  little  or  nothing  was  known, 
surveying  section  after  section  until  all  the  material  was 
gathered  for  constructing  a  trustworthy  map  of  the  whole 
country.  This  preliminarv  task  has  not  yet  been  finished, 
even  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  most 
essential  progress  so  far  made  in  this  regard  is  closely  con- 
nected with  the  first  great  classical  period  of  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  excavations,  during  which  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson, 
equally  prominent  as  a  soldier  and  explorer,  decipherer  and 
linguist,  comparative  geographer  and  archaeologist,  occupied 
the  influential  position  of  British  Resident  and  Consul- 
General  in  Baghdad,  to  the  greatest  advantage  of  the  scien- 
tific undertakings  carried  on  in  the  regions  of  the  Euphrates 
and  Tigris  during  his  administration  (1843-55).^ 

JAMES     FELIX    JONES 

Among  the  technically  trained  men  of  that  time  who  in 
no  small  part  assisted  by  their  work  and  interest  in  building 
up  the  voung  science  of  Assyriology,  Commander  James 
Felix  Jones  will  always  hold  an  especially  conspicuous 
place.  His  excellent  topographical  material,  for  the  greater 
part  unfortunately  buried  in  the  "  Records  of  the  Bombay 

^  After  a  residence  of  five  years  in  Persia,  Rawlinson  had  spent  the  greater 
portion  of  1839  in  Baghdad,  when  in  consequence  of  the  great  war  in  Afghan- 
istan he  was  appointed  Political  Agent  at  Candahar,  where  he  distinguished 
himself  greatly  until  1843,  when  he  was  sent  back  to  Baghdad  as  "  PoHtical 
Agent  and  Consul-General  in  Turkish  Arabia." 


64  EXPLOBATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Government,"  ^  from  which  twenty-five  years  later  Heinrich 
Kiepert  excavated  it  for  the  benefit  of  Oriental  students, 
deserves  a  few  words  also  in  this  connection. 

Being  stationed  with  his  armed  boat  "  Nitocris  "  at 
Baghdad,  Jones  naturally  made  this  city  the  base  of  his 
operations.  His  attention  was  first  directed  to  a  re-exami- 
nation of  the  course  of  the  Tigris  above  the  point  where 
the  Shatt  el-Adhem  empties  into  the  former.  In  April, 
1846,  when  the  annual  rise  of  the  river  had  provided  the 
necessary  water  for  his  steamer,  he  advanced  northward. 
Notwithstanding  the  increased  force  of  the  current,  which 
at  times  almost  equalled  the  power  of  the  machine,  seriously 
interfering  with  his  progress,  Jones  reached  the  rapids  of  the 
Tigris  above  Tekrit,  and  by  his  measurements  and  triangu- 
lations  greatly  improved  the  earlier  map  of  Rich  and  fur- 
nished considerable  new  information. 

In  the  years  1848-50,  during  the  months  of  March  and 
April,  when  the  lack  of  water  and  the  absence  of  a  settled 
population  did  not  yet  prove  too  great  an  obstacle  to  topo- 
graphical work  in  regions  where  everv  accommodation  was 
wanting,  he  made  three  exploration  tours  into  the  districts 
to  the  east  of  the  Tigris.  His  intention  was  to  determine 
the  tract  of  the  ancient  Nahrawan  Canal,  which,  leaving 
the  Tigris  about  halfway  between  Tekrit  and  Samarra,  had 
once  brought  life  and  fertility  to  the  whole  territory  as  far 
down  as  Kiad(t)  el-*Amara,  to-day  almost  entirely  covered 
with  the  sand  of  the  desert  or  with  large  brackish  water 
pools. 

Of  even  greater  importance  from  an  Assyriological  stand- 
point are  his  "  Researches  in  the  vicinitv  of  the  Median 
Wall  of  Xenophon  and  along  the  old  course  of  the  River 
Tigris,"  carried  on  in  March,  1850,  shortly  before  he  closed 

^  It  was  with  great  difficulty  and  only  after  long  searching  that  I  finally  pro- 
cured a  copy  of  his  •♦  Selections  from  the  Records  of  the  Bombay  Govern- 
ment," No.  xliii.,  1857,  for  my  own  library. 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       65 

his  investigations  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  river  just  men- 
tioned. Although  he  succeeded  as  little  in  discovering  the 
"  Median  Wall "  as  his  predecessors,  Ross  and  Lynch 
(1836),  or  his  successor  Lieutenant  Bewsher,  all  of  whom 
endeavored  in  vain  to  locate  it,  yet,  in  addition  to  all  the 
valuable  discoveries  of  Babylonian  and  later  Mohammedan 
ruins  and  canals  which  he  carefully  fixed  and  described  on 
this  journey,  Jones  proved  conclusively  that,  contrary  to 
previously  held  opinions,  the  site  of  the  influential  and 
powerful  Babylonian  city  ot  Opis,  better  known  from  Xen- 
ophon's  and  Alexander's  campaigns,  is  identical  with  the 
enormous  Tell  Manjur,  on  the  southern  or  right  side  of  the 
present  bed  of  the  Tigris  ;  and  that,  moreover,  this  location 
is  entirely  in  accordance  with  ancient  tradition,  which  places 
it  on  the  northern  or  left  bank  of  that  river,  in  so  far  as  the 
ancient  bed  of  the  Tigris,  still  called  by  the  natives  "  the 
Uttle  Tigris"  (Shtet  and  Dijel),^  with  numerous  traces  of 
canals  once  proceeding  from  the  latter,  could  be  established 
by  him  beyond  any  doubt  to  the  S.W.  of  Opis.^ 

But  the  crowning  piece  of  Jones's  numerous  contributions 
to  the  general  and  comparative  geography  of  the  countries 
adjacent  to  the  Tigris  was  his  excellent  plan  of  Nineveh 
and  his  survey  of  the  whole  district  intermediate  between 
the  Tigris  and  the  Upper  Zab.^  The  new  impulse  given 
to  science  by  the  epoch-making  discoveries  of  Botta  and 
Layard  in  the  Assyrian  mounds  had  turned  the  eyes  of  the 
civilized  world  again  to  the  long-forgotten  country  in  which 
those  historical  places  were  situated.  Yielding  to  a  general 
desire  of  seeing  a  complete  picture  of  Assyria  in  her  present 
desolation,  the    East  India  Company,  at  the  request  of  the 

^  In  June,  1900,  when  I  examined  that  whole  region,  I  heard  both  names 
from  the  Arabs. 

2  Comp.  on  this  whole  question  Kiepert,  Begleittvorte  zur  Karte  der 
Ruinenfelder  von  Babylon,  Berlin,  1883,  pp.  24,  seq. 

^  Comp.  his  report  in  the  "Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,"  vol.  xv.  (London,   1855),  pp.  297-397. 


66  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Trustees  of  the  British  Museum,  despatched  Commander 
Jones  in  the  spring  of  1852  to  proceed  with  the  construc- 
tion of  the  necessary  map.  Assisted  by  Dr.  Hyslop^  of 
the  British  Residency  in  Baghdad,  chiefly  interested  in  the 
flora  of  the  Nineveh  region,  the  work  was  accomplished 
within  a  month  and  a  half,  at  that  great  time  when  Victor 
Place  was  still  excavating  at  Khorsabad,  and  Rawlinson  in- 
specting the  work  of  the  Assyrian  explorers,  while  Fresnel 
and  Oppert  had  just  arrived  in  that  neighborhood  from 
Paris,  previous  to  their  excavations  in  Babylon. 

In  three  large  sheets,  which  up  to  this  day  are  the  stand- 
ard work  for  the  geography  of  ancient  Assyria,  the  results 
of  the  survey  were  published.  Before  closing  his  interest- 
ing report  on  the  topography  of  Nineveh,  Jones  paid  a 
warm  tribute  to  the  work  of  Rich,  "  the  first  real  laborer  in 
Assyrian  fields,"  by  writing  the  following  memorable 
words:  "His  survey  (of  Nineveh  and  Nimrud)  will  be 
found  as  correct  as  the  most  diligent  enthusiast  can  desire  ; 
indeed,  were  it  not  for  the  renewed  inquiry  into  Assyrian 
subjects,  the  present  survev  we  have  the  honor  of  submit- 
ting to  the  public  might  have  been  dispensed  with,  for  its 
value  chiefly  consists  in  corroborating  the  fidelity  of  his  posi- 
tions, and  otherwise,  though  quite  unnecessary,  stamping 
his  narrative  with  the  broad  seal  of  truth." 

LYNCH,   SELBY,   COLLINGWOOD,   BEWSHER 

In  the  mean  while  the  way  was  being  gradually  prepared 
for  a  similar  kind  of  work  in  Babylonia.  Fraser,"  Loftus,  ^ 
and  Lavard*  had  boldly  entered  the  swamps  of  'Iraq  and 
examined  the  interior  of  the  country,  the  former  two  trav- 
ersing this  great  alluvial  plain  almost  its  entire  length,  and 

^  Who  had  succeeded  Dr.  Ross  as  physician,  after  the  former's  untimely 
death.  *  Comp.  above,  pp.  54,  sfi^^. 

'   Comp.  below,  pp.   139,  se^^.  *  Comp.  below,  pp.  157,  sei^^. 


DURING  WTH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       67 

bringing  back  the  startling  news  that  the  whole  surface 
was  literally  covered  with  large  towers,  extensive  mounds, 
and  numerous  smaller  ruins,  with  frequent  traces  of  ancient 
canals,  fragments  of  bricks,  statuary,  and  many  other  objects 
of  a  high  antiquity.  Fully  convinced  of  the  character  and 
age  of  these  remains  of  a  former  civilization.  Sir  Henry 
Rawlinson  at  once  conceived  the  idea  of  having  the  whole 
of  Babylonia  surveyed  after  the  manner  so  admirably  fol- 
lowed by  Jones  and  Hyslop  in  Assvria.  Prior  to  his  re- 
turn to  England  (1855),  he  requested  the  two  last-named 
experienced  men,  assisted  bv  T.  Kerr  Lvnch,  to  make 
an  accurate  survey  also  of  the  ruins  of  Babvlon  and  its 
environments,  an  order  which  they  executed  in  1854-55. 
Finally,  after  the  lapse  of  some  time,  through  Rawlinson's 
efforts  a  special  committee  was  appointed  bv  the  British 
government  of  India  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  his 
more  comprehensive  plan.  It  consisted  of  Commander 
William  Beaumont  Selby  and  Lieutenants  Collingwood  and 
Bewsher.  But  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  this  commis- 
sion spent  the  years  1861-65  '^^^  Babvlonia  executing  the 
orders  received,  and  that  the  most  difficult  part  of  the  work, 
the  surveying  of  the  swampy  district  from  Musayvib  to 
Shenafiye,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Euphrates,  was  finished 
in  the  very  first  year  (1861),  yet  at  the  end  of  the  period 
mentioned  only  about  the  fourth  part  of  the  entire  area 
was  on  paper. 

When  contrasted  with  the  large  amount  of  work  done 
by  Jones  within  such  a  short  time  and  often  under  trving 
circumstances,  one  cannot  but  realize  that  the  old  fiery  en- 
thusiasm, which  inspired  the  first  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
explorers  willingly  to  risk  everything,  in  order  to  break  un- 
known ground  and  recover  an  ancient  countrv,  was  strongly 
on  the  wane.  And  the  American  Expedition  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania  had  not  yet  demonstrated  that,  notwith- 
standing the  excessive  heat  and  the  often  almost  incredible 


68  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

swarms  of  vermin  and  insects,  it  was  possible  to  work  ten  to 
fourteen  hours  every  day  during  the  whole  year  at  the  edge 
of  one  of  the  most  extensive  Babylonian  swamps,  infested 
with  unruly  Arabs  and  troublesome  deserters  from  the  Turk- 
ish army,  without  any  considerable  increase  of  danger  to  the 
health  and  life  of  its  members.  Commander  Selby  and  his 
party,  however,  spent  only  a  few  weeks  out  of  every  twelve 
months  in  actual  work  in  the  field,  so  that  in  1866  the 
Indian  government  suspended  the  slowly  proceeding  and 
rather  expensive  work.  In  1871  the  results  obtained  by  the 
commission  of  three  were  published  under  the  title  "  Trigo- 
nometrical survey  of  a  part  of  Mesopotamia  with  the  rivers 
Euphrates  and  Tigris"  (two  sheets),  comprising  the  land  be- 
tween 33^^  and  32  degrees  north  latitude.  Even  in  its 
incomplete  condition  this  map  of  Babylonia,  thoroughly 
scientific,  denotes  a  new  epoch  in  the  study  of  ancient 
Babvlonian  geography.  A  third  sheet  gives  the  regions 
west  of  the  Euphrates,  as  mentioned  above,  while  a  fourth 
contains  a  most  accurate  survey  of  the  city  of  Babylon. 
From  all  the  material  which  since  the  time  of  Rich  had  been 
gathered  together,  in  1883  Heinrich  Kiepert  constructed 
his  own  excellent  and  much  consulted  map  of  Northern 
Babylonia,^  until  the  present  day  our  only  trustworthy 
guide  through  all  the  ruins  to  the  south  of  Baghdad.  No 
attempt  has  as  yet  been  made  to  survey  Central  and  South- 
ern Babylonia. 

How  long  will  this  unsatisfactory  condition  last?  A 
single  man,  or  even  two  or  three,  while  in  charge  of  an  ex- 
pedition at  one  of  the  Babylonian  ruins,  cannot  survey  the 
remaining  three  quarters  of  the  whole  land  to  the  south  of 
Nuffar  within  a  reasonable  space  of  time.  An  especial  expe- 
dition must  be  organized  to  execute  the  work  properly  and 
scientifically,  under  a  firman  which  should  grant  the  mem- 
bers of  this  expedition  the  necessary  right  to  dig  enough  at 
^   Ruinc7ifelder  der  UmgegenJ  von  Babylon,  Berlin,   1883. 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       69 

the  most  prominent  ruins  to  identify  the  early  Babylonian 
cities  buried  below  them. 

In  the  year  1893,  when  the  organization  of  the  Babylon- 
ian Section  of  the  Imperial  Ottoman  Museum  was  en- 
trusted to  the  present  writer,  he  was  also  requested  to 
submit  a  report  to  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  on  the 
steps  necessary  for  an  effective  preservation  of  the  Babylon- 
ian ruins  and  their  future  methodical  exploration.  The 
report  was  written  and  certain  measures  proposed.  A  seri- 
ous effort  was  even  made  to  have  the  plan  as  outlined 
above  adopted  and  executed  by  the  Ottoman  government, 
at  whose  disposal  were  a  number  of  excellent  officers  trained 
in  Germany  and  in  France.  For  several  years  I  had  hoped 
to  carry  out  the  work  myself  with  Halil  Bey,  Director 
of  the  Ottoman  Museum,  a  high  Danish  military  officer, 
and  a  number  of  engineers  and  architects  from  England  and 
America.  But  pressing  duties  in  Philadelphia,  Constan- 
tinople, and  Nuffar  prevented  me  from  realizing  the  long 
cherished  plan. 

The  time,  as  it  seemed,  was  not  yet  ripe  for  such  an 
enterprise.  It  has  considerably  matured  since.  In  con- 
nection with  the  preliminary  survey  for  the  recently  planned 
railroad  from  Baghdad  to  Quwait,  an  accurate  map  of  Cen- 
tral and  Southern  Babylonia  could  be  easily  prepared  by 
Germany  without  any  great  additional  expense.  At  a  time 
when  fresh  zeal  and  activity  for  the  organization  of  new 
expeditions  to  the  land  of  the  earliest  civilization  are  mani- 
fested everywhere,  may  this  grand  opportunity,  almost  pro- 
videntially given  to  Germany,  not  be  lost  but  be  seized  with 
characteristic  energy  and  perseverance  and  utilized  for  the 
benefit  of  Babylonian  research  at  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth 
century. 


70  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


III 

EXCAVATIONS    AT    THE    PRINCIPAL   SITES    OF  ASSYRIA 
AND    BABYLONIA 

In  the  fall  of  1 843,  after  a  distinguished  service  in  Afghan- 
istan (1839-42),  Rawlinson,  as  we  have  seen  above  (p.  63, 
note  1),  was  transferred  to  Baghdad  as  "  British  Political 
Agent  in  Turkish  Arabia."  The  young  "  student-soldier," 
then  occupying  the  rank  of  major,  had  requested  Lord 
Ellenborough,  Governor-General  of  India,  to  appoint  him 
to  this  particular  post  (just  about  to  be  vacant)  rather  than 
to  the  much  more  dignified  and  lucrative  "  Central  India 
Agency  "  offered  him,  because  of  his  strong  desire  "  to 
return  to  the  scene  of  his  former  labors  and  resume  his 
cuneiform  investigations,  in  which  he  had  found  the  greatest 
pleasure  and  satisfaction."^  In  accepting  a  far  inferior  posi- 
tion with  its  lighter  political  duties,  which  allowed  him 
ample  leisure  for  his  favorite  studies,  Rawlinson,  with  great 
perspicacity,  chose  a  life  for  which  he  was  peculiarly  fitted, 
and  entered  upon  a  road  which  soon  brought  him  fame 
and  recognition  far  beyond  anything  that  he  could  ever 
have  achieved  in  governing  half-civilized  tribes  or  fighting 
victorious  battles.  The  twelve  years  during  which  Rawlin- 
son held  his  appointment  in  Baghdad  mark  the  first  great 
period  of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  excavations.  It  is  true 
he  undertook  but  little  work  in  the  trenches  himself,  but  he 
influenced  and  supervised  the  excavations  of  others,  and 
personally  examined  all  the  important  ruins  of  Assyria 
and  Northern  Babylonia.  His  advice  and  assistance  were 
sought  by  nearly  all  those  who  with  pick  and  spade  were 
engaged  in  uncovering  the  buried  monuments  of  two  great 

^  Comp.  *'A  Memoir  of  Major-General  Sir  Henry  Creswicke   Rawlin- 
son," by  his  brother,  Canon  George   Rawlinson,  London,  1898,  pp.    139, 


DUBING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       71 

empires.  While  Continental  explorers  won  their  laurels  on 
the  mounds  of  Khorsabad  and  Nimrud,  Rawlinson  forced 
the  inaccessible  rock  of  Behistun  to  surrender  the  great 
trilingual  inscription   of  Darius,   which,  in  the  quietude  of 


The  Rock  of  Behistun  with  the  Great  Trilingual  Inscription 

his  study  on  the  Tigris,  became  the  "  Rosetta  Stone "  of 
Assyriology,  and  in  his  master  hand  the  kev  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  Assyrian  documents.^ 

So  far  the  leading  explorers  of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
ruins  in  the  nineteenth  century  had  been  British  officers  and 
private  travellers.  In  no  small  degree,  the  East  India  Com- 
pany, through  its  efficient  representatives  at  Baghdad  and 
Basra,    had    promoted    and    deepened    the    interest    in    the 

■^  The  two  fundamental  and  epoch-making  publications  in  which  Rawlin- 
son submitted  the  first  complete  copy  and  his  decipherment  of  the  second 
(Persian)  and  third  (Babylonian)  columns  of  the  Behistun  inscription  to  the 
learned  world,  appeared  in  the  "Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,"  vols.  x.  (1846-47),  xi.  (1849),  xii.  (1850), 
and  xiv.  (1851). 


72  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

ancient  history  and  geography  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris 
valleys  ;  and  as  long  as  this  company  existed,  it  never  ceased 
to  be  a  generous  patron  of  all  scientific  undertakings  carried 
on  in  regions  which,  through  their  close  connection  with 
the  Bible,  have  always  exercised  a  powerful  influence  upon 
the  mind  of  the  English  public.  Under  Rawlinson's  ener- 
getic and  tactful  management  of  British  interests  in  "  Turk- 
ish Arabia,"  the  old  traditional  policy  of  the  company  was 
kept  alive,  and  such  a  spirit  of  bold  progress  and  scientific 
investigation  was  inaugurated  in  England  as  had  never  been 
witnessed  before  in  the  Oriental  studies  of  that  country. 
And  yet,  through  a  peculiar  combination  of  circumstances 
and  events,  the  first  decisive  step  in  the  line  of  actual  exca- 
vations was  made  not  by  an  English  explorer,  but  by  an 
Orientalist  of  France,  Professor  Julius  von  Mohl,  one  of 
the  secretaries  of  the  French  Asiatic  Society,  who,  born  and 
educated  in  Germany,  had  gained  the  firm  conviction  that 
those  few  but  remarkable  bricks  which  he  had  recently  seen 
in  London  were  but  the  first  indication  and  sure  promise 
of  a  rich  literary  harvest  awaiting  the  fortunate  excavator 
in  the  mounds  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria.  No  sooner, 
therefore,  had  the  French  government  established  a  con- 
sular agency  in  Mosul  and  selected  a  suitable  candidate 
for  the  new  position,  than  Mohl  urged  him  most  strongly 
to  utilize  his  exceptional  opportunity  in  the  interest  of  sci- 
ence, and  to  start  excavations  in  the  large  mounds  opposite 
Mosul. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY :   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA       73 

1 

THE    DISCOVERY    OF   ASSYRIAN    PALACES 

FRENCH      EXCAVATIONS     AT     KHORSABAD      BY     BOTTA     AND 

PLACE 

The  man  whom  France  had  so  judiciously  sent  as  con- 
sular agent  to  Mosul  in  1842  was  the  naturalist  Paul  Emil 
Botta,  a  nephew  of  the  celebrated  historian  of  Italy,  and 
himself  a  man  of  no  small  gifts  and  of  considerable  expe- 
rience in  the  consular  service  at  Alexandria.  A  long  resi- 
dence in  Egypt,  Yemen,  and  Syria,  "  undertaken  regardless 
of  difficulties  or  the  dangers  of  climate,  solely  to  further  his 
scientific  pursuits,  had  eminently  adapted  him  for  an  appoint- 
ment in  the  East.  He  could  assimilate  himself  to  the  habits 
of  the  people ;  was  conversant  with  their  language ;  pos- 
sessed energy  of  character  ;  and  was  besides  an  intelligent 
and  practised  observer.  With  such  qualifications,  it  was 
obvious  that  his  residence  in  the  vicinity  of  a  spot  that 
history  and  tradition  agreed  in  pointing  out  as  the  site  of 
Nineveh  could  not  but  be  productive  of  important  results."  ^ 
Botta  was  then  only  thirty-seven  years  of  age.  Though 
very  limited  in  his  pecuniary  resources,  he  commenced  his 
researches  immediately  after  his  arrival  at  Mosul  with  the 
full  ardor  of  youth,  yet  in  the  cautious  and  methodical 
manner  of  the  scholar.  He  first  examined  the  whole  region 
around  Mosul,  visited  the  interior  of  many  modern  houses, 
and  tried  to  acquire  every  antiquity  in  the  hands  of  dealers 
and  other  persons,  with  the  fixed  purpose  of  tracing  the 
place  of  their  origin,  and  selecting  if  possible  a  suitable 
ruin  for  the  commencement  of  his  own  operations.  He 
soon  came,  however,  to  the  conclusion  that,  unlike  Hilla 
and   other   Babylonian   places,  Mosul   had   not   been   con- 

^  Comp.    Joseph  Bonomi,  "Nineveh  and  its   Palaces,"   London,  1852, 
p.  7. 


74  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

structed  with  ancient  Assyrian  material.^  Of  the  two  conspic- 
uous mounds  on  the  other  side  of  the  Tigris,  which  alone 
seemed  to  indicate  a  higher  antiquity,  the  southern  one, 
called  Nebi  Yunus,  and  partly  covered  with  a  village  of  the 
same  name,  attracted  his  first  attention  ;  for  it  was  there 
that  Rich  had  reported  the  existence  of  subterranean  walls 
and  cuneiform  inscriptions.  But  the  religious  prejudice  of 
the  inhabitants,  and  the  large  sum  necessary  for  their  ex- 
propriation, excluded  from  the  beginning  any  attempt  on 
his  part  at  excavating  here.  There  remained,  then,  no- 
thing else  for  him  but  to  start  operations  at  the  northern 
te/I  Qoyunjuk  (generally  written  K(o)uyunjik,  and  mean- 
ing "  Lamb"  in  Turkish),  which  doubtless  was  an  artificial 
mass,  and,  to  all  appearance,  contained  the  remains  of  some 
prominent  ancient  building.'-  Here  Botta  commenced  his 
researches  on  a  very  moderate  scale,  in  the  month  of 
December,  1842.  The  results  of  his  first  efforts  were  not 
very  encouraging.  Numerous  fragments  of  bas-reliefs  and 
cuneiform  inscriptions,  through  which  the  Assyrian  origin 
of  the  mound  was  established  beyond  question,  were  brought 
to  light,  but  "  nothing  in  a  perfect  state  was  obtained  to 
reward  the  trouble  and  outlay  "  of  the  explorer.  Though 
greatly  discouraged  by  the  absence  of  striking  finds,  he 
continued  his  excavations  till  the  middle  of  March,  1843. 

During  all  the  time  that  Botta  was  occupied  at  Qoyunjuk, 
superintending  his  workmen,  and  carefully  examining  every 
little  fragment  that  came  out  of  the  ground,  the  curious 
natives  of' the  neighboring  places  used  to  gather  around  his 
trenches,  gesticulating  and  discussing  what  this  strange  pro- 
ceeding of  the  foreigner  meant,  but  realizing  that  apparently 
he  was  in  quest  of  sculptured  stones,  inscribed  bricks,  and 

^   As  Rich  had  regarded  as  verv  likely. 

^  Comp.  the  Plan  of  the  Ruins  of'  Nineveh,  published  in  a  subsequent 
chapter,  "Temporary  Revival  of  Public  Interest  in  Assyrian  Excavations" 
(^sul>  "  George  Smith  "). 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA        75 

Other  antiquities  which  he  eagerly  bought  whenever  they 
were  offered.  One  dav,  as  far  back  as  December,  1842,  an 
inhabitant  of  a  distant  village,  a  dyer  of  Khorsabad,  who 
built  his  ovens  of  bricks  obtained  from  the  mound  on  which 
his  village  stood,  happened  to  pass  by  Qoyunjuk  and  to 
express  his  astonishment  about  Botta's  operations.  As  soon 
as  he  had  learned  what  was  the  real  purpose  of  all  these 
diggings,  he  declared  that  plentv  of  such  stones  as  they 
wanted  were  found  near  his  village,  at  the  same  time  offer- 
ing to  procure  as  many  as  the  foreigner  wished.  Botta, 
accustomed  to  the  Arab  endeavor  of  appearing  as  bearers 
of  important  and  pleasing  news,  did  not  at  first  pay  much 
attention  to  what  the  man  had  reported,  even  after  the  latter 
had  been  induced  to  bring  two  complete  bricks  with  cunei- 
form inscriptions  from  Khorsabad  to  Mosul.  But  finally, 
weary  with  his  fruitless  search  in  the  mound  of  Ooyunjuk, 


Mound  and  Village  of  Khorsabad,  from  the  West 

he  abandoned  the  scene  of  his  disappointing  labors,  and 
remembering  the  Arab  dyer  with  his  bricks  and  his  story, 
he  despatched  a  few  of  his  workmen  to  Khorsabad  on  March 
20,  1843,  ^^  test  the  mound  as  the  peasant  had  advised. 


76  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

The  village  of  Khorsabad,  situated  about  five  hours  to 
the  northeast  of  Mosul,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  same  little 
river  Khosar  which  flows  through  Nineveh,  is  built  on  the 
more  elevated  eastern  part  of  a  long-stretched  mound.  The 
gradually  descending  western  half  of  the  same  tei/  ends  in 
two  ridges  which  are  both  unoccupied.  It  was  in  the  north- 
ern ridge  of  the  latter  section  that  Botta's  workmen  began 
to  cut  their  trenches.  They  came  almost  immediately  upon 
two  parallel  walls  covered  with  the  mutilated  remains  of 
large  bas-reliefs  and  cuneiform  inscriptions.  A  messenger 
was  despatched  to  Mosul  in  order  to  inform  their  master 
of  the  great  discovery.  But  well  acquainted  with  the  rich 
phantasy  and  flowerv  speech  of  the  Arab  race,  Botta  seri- 
ously doubted  the  truth  of  the  extraordinary  news  so  quickly 
received,  and  at  first  ordered  a  servant  to  the  scene  of  exca- 
vations with  instructions  to  inspect  the  work  and  bring  him 
a  more  intelligent  account  of  the  actual  finds.  The  required 
evidence  was  soon  in  Botta's  possession.  There  could  be 
no  longer  any  doubt  that  this  time  the  Arabs  had  spoken 
the  full  truth,  and  that  most  remarkable  antiquities  of  a 
genuine  Assyrian  character  had  been  brought  to  Hght.  He 
now  hastened  at  once  to  Khorsabad  himself.  His  consular 
duties  allowed  him  to  remain  only  one  day.  But  the  few 
hours  which  he  could  spend  in  the  trenches  were  well  em- 
ployed. Though  the  first  sight  of  these  strange  sculptures 
and  witnesses  of  a  long-forgotten  past  which,  out  of  the 
depth  of  a  buried  civilization,  suddenlv  rose  like  the  fata 
morgana  before  his  astonished  eyes,  must  have  filled  his  soul 
with  great  excitement  and  rare  delight,  yet  he  could  calm 
himself  sufficiently  to  sit  down  among  his  Arab  workmen, 
and  sketch  the  most  important  reliefs  and  inscriptions  for 
his  friend  in  Paris. 

On  April  5,  1843,  Botta  wrote  the  first  of  a  series  of 
letters  to  Mohl,^  in  which  he  briefly  described  what  he  had 

^  Published  in  Journal  Asiatique,  series  iv.,    vol.   ii.,    pp.  61-72  (dated 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      11 

just  seen,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  some  way  might  he 
found  for  the  safe  transport  and  final  preservation  of  the 
excavated  treasures.  His  ardent  desire  was  soon  to  be  reaHzed 
beyond  expectation.  It  was  a  memorable  day  when  his  letter 
was  submitted  to  the  members  of  the  Societe  Asiatique,  and 
the  explorer's  statement  was  read  :  "  I  believe  myself  to  be 
the  first  who  has  discovered  sculptures  which  with  some  reason 
can  be  referred  to  the  period  when  Nineveh  was  flourish- 
ing." What  could  have  appealed  more  strongly  to  the 
French  nation  !  The  impression  which  these  simple  and 
yet  so  significant  words  created  in  the  scientific  circles  of 
France  was  extraordinary.  The  Academy  of  Paris  at  once 
requested  the  minister  to  grant  the  necessary  funds  for  a 
continuation  of  the  excavations  (so  far  chiefly  carried  on  at 
Botta's  personal  expense),  and  for  the  transport  of  all  the 
objects  recovered  to  Europe.  With  its  old  traditional  spirit 
of  munificence,  and  always  ready  to  encourage  and  support 
undertakings  which  by  their  very  nature  were  to  shed  new 
lustre  upon  the  name  of  France,  the  government  granted 
the  required  sum,  and  a  few  months  later  despatched  E. 
Flandin,  well  prepared  by  his  work  in  Persia,  to  the  assist- 
ance of  Botta,  in  order  to  sketch  all  such  monuments  as  could 
not  safely  be  removed  from  Khorsabad.  But  half  a  year 
elapsed  before  the  artist  arrived  at  the  ruins,  and  in  the 
meanwhile  Botta  had  to  fight  his  way,  blocked  with  numer- 
ous obstacles,  to  the  best  of  his  ability. 

Many  of  the  excavated  sculptures  had  suff'ered  consider- 
ably at  the  time  when  the  great  building  was  destroyed  by 
fire.  Resting  only  on  the  earth  of  the  mound,  they  began 
to  crumble  as  soon  as  the  halls  were  cleared  of  rubbish  and 

April  5,  1843),  with  12  plates;  pp.  201-214  (May  2,  1843),  with  9 
plates  ;  vol.  iii.,  pp.  91-103  (June  2,  1843)  and  pp.  424-435  (July  24, 
1843),  with  17  plates;  vol.  iv.,  pp.  301-314  (Oct.  31,  1843),  with  11 
plates.  Comp.,  also,  his  report  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  (March  22, 
1844)  in  vol.  v.,  pp.  201-207. 


78  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

exposed  to  light.  He  ordered  large  beams  to  prevent  the 
collapse  of  the  walls.  But  scarcely  had  he  turned  his  back 
when  the  unscrupulous  inhabitants  of  the  village,  always  in 
need  of  wood,  pillaged  his  supports,  thus  causing  destruc- 
tion. The  heat  of  the  summer  and  the  rains  of  the  winter 
interfered  seriously  with  his  progress,  often  damaging  beyond 
recognition  what  with  great  labor  and  patience  had  just  been 
rescued  from  the  ground,  sometimes  even  before  he  was 
able  to  examine  the  sculptures.  The  malarious  condition 
of  the  whole  region  caused  illness  and  death  among  his 
workmen,  proving  nearly  fatal  to  his  own  life.  The  peas- 
ants of  Khorsabad,  suspicious  beyond  measure,  and  unwill- 
ing to  aid  his  researches,  refused  to  work  and  sell  him  their 
houses,  which  occupied  the  most  important  part  of  the  ruins. 
In  addition  to  all  these  constant  worriments,  necessarily 
affecting  his  mind  and  body,  the  governor  of  Mosul,  with 
ever-increasing  jealousy  and  cunning,  tried  in  many  ways  to 
dishearten  the  explorer.  He  shared  the  general  belief  of 
his  people  that  the  foreigner  was  searching  for  treasures. 
Anxious  to  appropriate  them  himself,  he  frequently  threw 
Botta's  workmen  into  prison  in  order  to  extract  a  confession, 
or  he  appointed  watchmen  at  the  trenches  to  seize  every 
piece  of  gold  that  might  be  discovered.  When  all  this  failed 
to  have  the  desired  effect,  he  closed  the  work  altogether,  on 
the  pretext  that  Botta  was  evidently  establishing  a  military 
station  to  take  the  country  by  force  of  arms  from  the  sultan. 
At  Paris  and  Constantinople  everything  was  done  by  the 
French  government  and  its  representative  to  counteract 
these  miserable  machinations,  and  to  prove  the  utter  base- 
lessness of  the  malicious  accusations.  Finally,  well-directed 
energy,  tact,  and  perseverance  triumphed  over  all  the  obsta- 
cles and  animosity  of  the  native  population.  Botta  gradu- 
ally induced  the  chief  of  the  village  to  abandon  his  house 
on  the  summit  of  the  mound  temporarily  for  a  reasonable 
price,  and  to  move  dow  n  into  the  plain,  where  later  the  rest 


DURING  19TU  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      79 

of  the  inhabitants  followed,  after  the  explorer's  promise  to 
restore  the  original  contour  of  the  mound  as  soon  as  the 
latter  had  been  fully  examined.  Even  before  this  agreement 
was  entered  into  with  the  villagers,  Botta  had  found  it  neces- 
sary to  fill  his  trenches  again  after  he  had  copied  the  inscrip- 
tions, drawn  the  sculptures,  and  removed  those  antiquities 
which  could  be  transported,  as  the  only  way  in  which  the 
large  mass  of  crumbling  reliefs  could  be  saved  for  future 
research  from  their  rapid  destruction  by  the  air.  But  it 
was  not  until  the  beginning  of  May,  1844,  after  the  excava- 
tions had  rested  almost  completely^  during  the  winter,  that 
Flandin  finally  brought  the  necessarv  firman  from  Constan- 
tinople allowing  the  resumption  of  the  excavations.  Not- 
withstanding the  approaching  heat,  no  more  time  was  lost. 
Three  hundred  Christian  refugees  were  gradually  engaged 
to  excavate  the  unexplored  part  of  the  mound,  Botta  copy- 
ing the  inscriptions  and  Flandin  preparing  the  drawings  of 
the  sculptures  as  soon  as  they  had  been  exposed.  Both 
men  worked  with  the  greatest  harmonv,  energy,  and  de- 
votion during  the  whole  oppressive  summer,  until,  in 
October,  1844,  after  most  remarkable  success,  the  excava- 
tions were  suspended  temporarilv. 

A  large  mass  of  material  was  packed  for  shipment  by  raft 
down  the  Tigris  to  Basra,  whence  the  Cormorant,  a  French 
man-of-war,  in  1846,  carried  it  safely  to  Havre.  Flandin 
was  the  first  to  leave  Khorsabad  (November,  1844)  and 
to  return  to  Paris.  His  large  portfolio  of  beautiful  sketches 
and  drawings  had  fairly  prepared  the  way  for  the  arrival  of 
the  originals.  But  when  now  these  extraordinary  monuments 
themselves  had  found  a  worthy  place  in  the  large  halls  of 
the  Louvre,  constituting  the  first  great  Assyrian  museum  of 

^  Only  interrupted  by  a  short  visit  to  Khorsabad  in  company  with  a  few 
travellers,  among  them  Mr.  Dittel,  sent  by  the  Russian  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction  to  inspect  the  excavations.  In  connection  with  this  visit  Botta 
even  made  a  slight  excavation  in  order  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  his  guests. 


80 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


Europe;  when  these  gigantic  winged  bulls,  with  their  serene 
expression  of  dignified  strength  and  intellectual  power, 
and  these  fine  reliefs  illustrating  the  different  scenes  of 
peace  and  war  of  a  bygone  race  before  which  the  nations 
of  Asia  had  trembled,  stood  there  again   before  the  eyes  of 


Bas-Relief  from  the  Palace  of  Sargon,  Khorsabad 

the  whole  world,  as  a  powerful  witness  to  the  beginning  of  a 
resurrection  of  an  almost  forgotten  empire,  the  enthusiasm 
among  all  classes  of  France  knew  no  bounds.  By  order  of 
the  government,  and  under  the  auspices  of  the  Minister  of 
the  Interior,  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  Institute 
of  France    were    at    once  appointed  a  commission,    under 


DURING   19™  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      81 

whose  advice  and  cooperation  Botta  and  Flandin  were  ena- 
bled to  publish  the  results  of  their  combined  labors  in  a 
magnificent  work  of  five  large  volumes.^ 

The  excavations  of  the  two  explorers  had  penetrated 
into  the  interior  of  the  mound  of  Khorsabad  until  all  traces 
of  walls  disappeared.  But  a  careful  study  of  the  plan  drawn 
by  Flandin  had  enabled  them  to  infer  that  the  great  struc- 
ture which  yielded  all  these  bas-reliefs  and  inscriptions  must 
formerly  have  extended  considerably  farther.  From  certain 
indications  in  the  ground  it  became  evident  that  a  part  of  the 
monumental  building  had  been  intentionally  destroyed  in 
ancient  times,  but  it  was  to  be  expected  that  another  consider- 
able part  was  still  preserved  somewhere  in  the  unexplored 
sections  of  the  mound.  Stimulated  by  the  hope  of  finding 
the  lost  trace  again,  Botta  himself  opened  a  number  of 
trial  trenches  at  various  points.  But  all  his  exertions  having 
failed,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  everything  that  re- 
mained of  the  palace  at  Khorsabad  had  been  excavated,  and 
therefore  he  put  a  stop  to  the  work  on  this  ruin. 

In  the  year  1851  the  French  Assembly  voted  a  sum  of 
money  for  an  expedition  to  be  sent  to  Babylonia  (which  we 
shall  discuss  later),  and  another  for  the  resumption  of  the 
suspended  excavations  at  Khorsabad,  to  be  directed  by 
Victor  Place,  a  skilful  architect  and  Botta's  successor  as 
French  consular  agent  at  Mosul.  Technically  well  prepared 
for  his  task,  and  faithfully  supported  in  the  trenches  by 
Botta's  intelligent  foreman,  Nahushi,  who  with  many  other 
former  workmen  had  gladly  reentered  French  employment. 
Place  completed  the  systematic  examination  of  the  great 
palace  and  restored  its  ground-plan  during  the  years  1851-55. 
Under  his  supervision  the  excavations  exposed  all  the  re- 
maining buildings  and  rooms  attached  to  the  sculptured  halls, 
—  a  space  about  three  times  as  large  as  that  explored  by  his 

^  Monument  de  Ninive  d'ecouvert  et  decrit  par  M.  P.  E.  Botta,  mesure 
et  dessine  par  M.  E.  Flandin,  5  volumes  with  400  plates,  Paris,  1849-50. 


82 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


Wall  Decoration  in  Enamelled  Tiles,  Khorsabad 

predecessor,  and  successtully  extended  even  to  the  walls  of 
the  town.  In  these  outlying  mounds  he  unearthed  four 
simple  and  three  very  fine  gates,  flanked  bv  large  winged 
bulls  and  other  sculptures,  and  their  arches  most  beautifully 
decorated  with  friezes  of  blue  and  white  enamelled  tiles 
representing  winged  genii  and  animals,  plants  and  rosettes, 
in  excellent  design  and  execution.  At  the  angle  ^  formed 
bv  two  of  the  walls  of  the  palace  he  made  an  especially  val- 
uable discovery  in  the  form  of  an  inscribed  box  serving  as 
corner-stone,  and  containing  seven  tablets  of  different  size, 
in  gold,  silver,  copper,  lead,  lapis  lazuli,  magnesite,  and  lime- 
stone. They  all  bore  identical  cuneiform  records  pertain- 
ing to  the  history  of  these  buildings. 

It  was  not  always  very  easy  for  Place  to  trace  the  rooms 
of  the  "  harem  "  and  the  other  smaller  structures,  as  no 
sculptures  like  those  discovered  by  Botta  had  adorned  their 
walls  and  sustained  the  crumbling  mass  of  unbaked  bricks. 
But  gradually  his  eyes  became  sharpened  and  were  able  to 
distinguish  the  faint  outlines  of  walls  from  the  surrounding 
earth  and  rubbish.     Though  his  excavations  did  not  yield 

^  Comp.  Oppert,  Expedition  en  Mesopotamie,  vol.  i.,  p.   349,  note  2. 


DURING   10TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      83 

anything  like  the  rich  harvest  in  large  monuments  of  art 
reaped  bv  his  predecessor,  as  we  have  just  seen,  they  were  by 
no  means  deficient  in  them.  But  they  were  especiallv  pro- 
ductive in  those  small  objects  of  clay  and  stone,  glass  and 
metal,  which  in  a  welcome  manner  supplemented  our  know- 
ledge of  the  life  and  customs  and  daily  needs  of  the  ancient 
Assvrians.  Place  discovered  no  less  than  fourteen  inscribed 
barrel  cylinders  with  historical  records.  He  found  a  regular 
magazine  of  pottery,  another  full  of  colored  tiles,  and  a  third 
containing  iron  implements  of  every  description  in  such  a 
fine  state  ot  preservation  that  several  of  them  were  used  at 
once  by  his  Arab  workmen.  He  unearthed  even  the  water- 
closets,  the  bakery  and  the  "  wine-cellar  "  of  the  king,  the 
latter  easily  to  be  identified  by  a  number  of  pointed  jars 
resting  in  a  double  row  of  small  holes  on  the  paved  floor, 
and  discharging  a  strong  smell  of  yeast  after  the  first  rain 
had  dissolved  their  red  sediments. 

Unlike  Botta,  who,  after  his  great  discoverv,  most  natu- 
rally had  concentrated  all  his  energy  upon  a  svstematic 
exploration  of  the  mound  of  Khorsabad,  Place  made  repeated 
excursions  Into  the  regions  to  the  east  and  south  of  Mosul, 
examining  many  of  the  smaller  mounds  with  which  the  whole 
country  is  covered,  and  excavating  for  a  few  months  without 
success  at  Qal'at  Shirgat,  the  large  Tell  Shemamyk  (about 
halfway  between  the  Upper  Zab  and  Erbil,  to  the  south- 
west of  the  latter)  and  even  in  the  neighborhood  of  Nimrud, 
which  had  yielded  such  extraordinary  treasures  to  Lavard.* 
About  the  same  time  English  excavations  w^ere  carried  on 
by  Rassam,  in  the  ruins  just  mentioned,  under  Rawlinson's 
direction,  the  Ottoman  firman  having  granted  to  both  the 
French  and  British  governments  the  right  of  excavating  "in 
any  ground  belonging  to  the  state."     In  consquence  of  this 

^  Comp.  Lettre  de  M.  Place  a  M.  Mohl  sur  une  Expedition  faite  a 
Arbeles  (dated  Mosul,  Nov.  20,  1852)  in  the  Journal  Asiatique,  series 
iv.,  vol.  XX.  (1852),  pp.  441-470. 


84  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

peculiar  arrangement,  the  interests  of  the  two  European 
nations  threatened  frequently  to  clash  against  each  other,  a 
pardonable  rivalry  existing  all  the  while  between  the  differ- 
ent excavators,  accompanied  by  a  constant  friction  and  ill- 
feeling  among  their  workmen.  This  was  particularly  the 
case  at  Qal'at  Shirgat,  where  Rawlinson  "  made  a  distinct 
and  categorical  assertion  of  the  British  claims,"  and  at 
Ooyunjuk,  where,  at  Place's  request,  he  had  apportioned 
the  northern  half  of  the  mound  to  the  French  representa- 
tive—  a  compact  which  was  later  entirely  ignored  by  Ras- 
sam  on  the  ground  that  this  mound  was  not  state  property, 
and  that  Rawlinson  accordingly  had  no  power  to  give  away 
what  did  not  belong  to  him/ 

Unfortunately,  a  large  part  of  the  antiquities  excavated  by 
Victor  Place  at  Khorsabad  met  with  a  sad  fate.  Together 
with  sixty-eight  cases  of  the  finest  bas-reliefs  from  Ashur- 
banapal's  palace  at  Qoyunjuk,  which  Rawlinson  had  allowed 
him  to  select  for  the  Louvre,  and  including  all  the  results  of 
Fresnel's  expedition  to  Babylon,  they  were  lost  on  two  rafts 
in  the  Tigris  on  their  way  from  Baghdad  to  Basra  in  the 
spring  of  1855.  But  notwithstanding  this  lamentable  mis- 
fortune, Place  was  enabled  to  submit  to  the  public  all  those 
results  which  he  had  previously  brought  on  paper  in  another 
magnificent  work  published  by  his  liberal  government." 

The  importance  of  all  the  discoveries  at  Khorsabad, 
brought  about  bv  the  united  efforts  of  Botta,  Flandin,  and 
Place,  cannot  be  overrated.  The  mounds  under  which  the 
monuments  had  been  buried  for  twentv-five  hundred  years 
represented  a  whole  fortified  town,  called  after  its  founder, 

^  Comp.  the  interesting  story  of  these  quarrels  as  told  by  Rassam, 
"  Asshur  and  the  Land  of  Nimrod,"  New  York,  1897,  pp.  7,  12-27  5  ^nd 
George  Rawlinson,  "  Memoir  of  Major-General  Sir  Henry  Creswicke 
Rawlinson,"  pp.   178,  sei^g. 

"^  Victor  Place,  Ninive  et  /'  Ass^rie,  avec  des  essais  de  restauration  par  F. 
Thomas,  3  volumes,  Paris,  1866-69. 


DURING  lOTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      85 

Sargon,  the  conqueror  of  Samaria  (722  b.  c),  Dur-Sharruken 
or  "  Sargon's  Castle."  The  walls  by  which  the  town  was 
protected  were  found  intact  at  their  bases.  Thev  constituted 
a  rectangular  parallelogram,  or  nearly  a  square,  pointing  with 
its  tour  corners  to  the  cardinal  points,  and  enclosing  a  space 
of  a  little  over  741  acres.  Its  northwest  side  was  interrupted 
by  the  roval  palace,  which,  like  a  huge  bastion,  protruded 
considerably  into  the  plain,  at  the  same  time  forming  part 
ot  the  great  town-wall.  The  latter  was  provided  with  eight 
monumental  gates,  each  of  which  was  named  after  an  Assyrian 
deitv. 

The  royal  residence  was  erected  on  a  loftv  terrace,  nearly 
forty-five  feet  high  and  built  of  unbaked  bricks  cased  with 
a  wall  of  large  square  stones.  At  the  northern  corner  of 
this  raised  platform,  covering  an  area  of  nearly  twentv-five 
acres  of  land,  was  an  open  place  ;  near  the  \\'estern  corner 
stood  a  temple,  and  at  the  centre  of  the  southwest  side  rose 
the  stage-tower  belonging  to  it  and  used  also  for  astronom- 
ical observations  ;  the  rest  was  occupied  bv  the  palace  itself 
This  latter  was  divided  into  three  sections,  the  seraglio 
occupying  the  centre  of  the  terrace  and  extending  towards 
the  plain ;  the  harem,  with  only  two  entrances,  situated 
at  the  southern  corner,  and  the  domestic  quarters  at  the 
eastern  corner,  connected  with  the  store  and  provision 
rooms,  the  stables,  kitchen,  and  bakerv,  at  the  centre  of 
the  southeast  side.  The  seraglio,  inhabited  bv  the  king 
and  his  large  retinue  of  military  and  civil  officers,  like  the 
other  two  sections  of  the  extensive  building,  consisted  of  a 
great  many  larger  and  smaller  rooms  grouped  around  several 
open  courts.  The  northwest  wing  contained  the  public 
reception  rooms,  —  wide  halls,  elaborately  decorated  with 
winged  bulls,  magnificent  sculptures  and  historical  inscrip- 
tions, glorifying  the  king  in  his  actions  of  peace  and  war. 
We  see  him  hunting  wild  animals,  doing  homage  to  the 
gods,  sitting  at  the  table  and  listening  to   the  singers  and 


86  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

musicians,  or  attacking  strong  cities  and  castles,  subduing 
foreign  nations,  punishing  rebels,  and  leading  back  thou- 
sands of  captives  and  innumerable  spoil  of  every  descrip- 
tion. The  private  apartments  of  the  monarch,  which  were 
much  smaller  and  simpler,  occupied  the  southeast  wing, 
close  to  the  harem  or  women's  quarter.  The  latter  was 
entirely  separated  from  the  other  two  sections,  even  its 
single  rooms,  as  the  traces  of  discovered  hinges  indicate, 
being  closed  by  folding  doors,  while  everywhere  else  the 
entrances  appear  to  have  been  covered  with  curtains. 

The  floor  of  the  difi^erent  chambers  as  a  rule  was  only 
stamped  clay,  upon  which  in  many  cases  doubtless  precious 
rugs  had  been  spread.  Here  and  there  it  was  overlaid  with 
tiles  or  marble  blocks,  which  were  especially  employed  for 
pavements  in  connection  with  courts  and  open  spaces  around 
the  palace.  The  walls  of  the  rooms,  serving  to  exclude  the 
intense  heat  of  the  summer,  and  to  protect  against  the  severe 
cold  of  the  winter,  were  exceptionally  thick.  They  varied 
between  nine  feet  and  a  half  and  sixteen  feet,  and  in  one 
case  reached  the  enormous  thickness  of  even  twenty-five 
feet  and  a  half.  Apart  from  the  large  reception  rooms  and 
gateways,  which  displayed  all  the  splendor  that  Assyrian 
artists  were  able  to  give  them,  the  inner  walls  were  generally 
covered  only  with  a  white  plaster  surrounded  by  black  lines, 
while  the  women's  apartments  were  adorned  more  tastefully 
with  fresco  paintings  and  white  or  black  arabesques.  Marble 
statues  as  a  decorative  element  were  found  exclusively  in 
the  principal  court  of  the  harem.  The  exterior  of  the  palace 
walls  exhibited  a  system  of  groups  of  half-columns,  separated 
bv  dentated  recesses  or  chasings,  —  the  prevailing  type  of 
ancient  Babylonian  external  architecture,  as  we  shall  see 
later. 

It  is  impossible  to  enter  into  all  the  characteristic  features 
which  this  remarkable  complex  must  have  presented  to 
Sargon  and  his  people,  and  as  a  careful  study  of  the  whole 


DURING  19TII   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      87 

monument  allowed  Place  and  others  gradually  to  restore  it. 
The  Assyrian  architecture,  previously  completely  unknown, 
appeared  suddenly  before  us  in  all  the  details  of  a  sumptu- 
ous building,  adorned  with  sculptures  and  paintings  which 
lead  us  back  into  the  midst  of  Assyrian  life  during  the 
eighth  pre-Christian  century.  We  get  acquainted  with  the 
occupations  of  the  king  and  his  subjects,  their  customs,  their 
pleasures,  their  mode  of  living,  their  religion,  their  art,  and 
part  of  their  literature.  With  great  astonishment,  artists 
and  scholars  began  to  realize  how  high  a  standard  this  people 
in  the  East  had  reached  at  a  time  when  Europe  as  a  whole 
was  still  in  a  state  of  barbarism.  With  extraordinary  en- 
thusiasm, students  of  philology  and  history  welcomed  the 
enormous  mass  of  authentic  material,  which,  in  the  hands  of 
Rawlinson,  Hincks,  and  Oppert,  was  soon  to  shed  a  flood 
of  new  light  upon  the  person  and  reign  and  language  of  that 
great  warrior,  Sargon,  so  far  known  only  by  name  from  a 
statement  in  Isaiah  (20  :  i),  and  upon  the  whole  history  and 
geography  of  Western  Asia  shrouded  in  darkness,  and  which, 
by  its  constant  references  to  names  and  events  mentioned  in 
the  Bible,  was  eagerly  called  upon  as  an  unexpected  witness 
to  test  the  truthfulness  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  There  have 
been  made  other  and  even  greater  discoveries  in  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  ruins  since  Botta's  far-reaching  exploration 
of  the  mounds  of  Khorsabad,  but  there  never  has  been 
aroused  again  such  a  deep  and  general  interest  in  the  exca- 
vation of  distant  Oriental  sites  as  towards  the  middle  of 
the  last  centurv,  when  Sargon's  palace  rose  suddenly  out 
of  the  ground,  and  furnished  the  first  faithful  picture  of  a 
great  epoch  of  art  which  had  vanished  completely  from 
human  sight. 


88  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

ENGLISH    EXCAVATIONS    AT    NIMRUD,    QOYUNJUK,    AND 
QAL*AT  SHIRGAt  BY  LAYARD,  RASSAM,  AND  LOFTUS 

The  eagerness  and  determination  of  the  scholar  to  de- 
cipher and  understand  those  long  cuneiform  inscriptions 
which,  like  a  commentary,  accompanied  the  monuments  of 
Khorsabad,  could  be  satisfied  only  after  the  whole  material 
had  arrived  and  been  published.  In  the  meanwhile  the 
new  impulse  given  to  archaeological  studies  by  the  announce- 
ment of  Botta's  success  manifested  itself  at  once  in  influ- 
encing a  young  Englishman  to  imitate  the  latter's  example, 
and  to  start  excavations  at  one  of  the  most  prominent 
Assyrian  mounds,  which,  even  two  years  before  Botta's 
arrival  at  Mosul,  he  had  viewed  "  with  the  design  of  thor- 
oughly examining  them  whenever  it  might  be  in  his  power." 
The  man  who  now,  as  England's  champion,  stepped  forth 
into  the  international  contest  for  great  archaeological  discov- 
eries was  so  exceptionally  qualified  and  prepared  for  his 
task  by  natural  gifts  and  the  experience  of  his  past  life,  and 
at  the  same  time  so  eminently  successful  in  the  choice  of 
his  methods  and  men,  in  the  overcoming  of  extraordinary 
obstacles  and  difficulties,  in  the  rapid  obtaining  of  the  most 
glorious  results,  and  in  the  forcible  and  direct  manner  with 
which  through  the  remarkable  story  of  his  rare  achievements 
he  appealed  to  the  heart  of  his  countrymen  and  to  the 
sentiment  of  the  whole  educated  world,  that  he  at  once 
became,  and  during  the  whole  nineteenth  century  remained, 
the  central  figure  of  Assyrian  exploration. 

Sir  Austen  Henry  Layard,  the  descendant  of  a  Huguenot 
refugee  who  had  settled  in  England,  was  born  in  Paris  on 
March  5,  18 17.  In  consequence  of  his  father's  illness, 
which  frequently  necessitated  a  change  of  climate,  he  spent 
much  of  his  boyhood  in  France,  Switzerland,  and  Italy, 
where,  with  all  the  deficiencies  of  a  desultory  and  highly  cos- 
mopolitan education,   he  acquired  a  taste  for  the  fine  arts 


DURING  Wrii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       89 

and  archgeology,  and  that  characteristic  love  for  travel  and 
adventure  which  prepared  him  so  well  for  his  later  nomadic 
life  and  career  as  an  explorer.  When  about  sixteen  vears 
of  age  he  was  sent  to  the  house  of  his  uncle  in  London  to 
study  law.  But,  to  quote  his  own  words,  "after  spending 
nearly  six  years  in  the  office  of  a  solicitor,  and  in  the  cham- 
bers of  an  eminent  conveyancer,  I  determined  for  various 
reasons  to  leave  England  and  to  seek  a  career  elsewhere." 
From  his  childhood  well  acquainted  with  several  European 
languages,  and  familiar  with  the  manners  of  men  in  various 
European  lands,  he  now  longed  to  see  the  fascinating  Orient 
itself,  the  land  of  the  "  Arabian  Nights,"  which  had  often 
inflamed  his  youthful  mind.  With  the  greatest  eagerness 
he  had  devoured  every  volume  of  Eastern  travel  that  fell 
in  his  way.  The  reading  of  the  works  of  Morier,  Malcolm, 
and  Rich,  and  the  personal  acquaintance  with  men  like 
Baillie  Eraser  (comp.  pp.  54,  seqq.^  above)  and  Sir  Charles 
Fellowes,  favorably  known  from  his  discoveries  among  the 
ruined  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  had  inspired  him  with  an  ardent 
desire  to  follow  in  their  footsteps.  In  order  to  prepare  him- 
self for  his  journey,  he  had  mastered  the  Arabic  letters, 
picked  up  a  little  of  the  Persian  language,  taken  lessons  in 
the  use  of  the  sextant  from  a  retired  captain  of  the  mer- 
chant service,  and  even  hastily  acquired  a  superficial  medical 
knowledge  of  the  treatment  of  wounds  and  certain  Oriental 
diseases. 

In  the  company  of  another  enthusiastic  traveller,  E.  L. 
Mitford,  who,  like  Layard   himself,^  has  left  us  a  narrative 

^  Comp.  Layard,  "  Early  Adventures  in  Persia,  Susiana,  and  Babylonia, 
including  a  Residence  among  the  Bakhtiyari  and  other  Wild  Tribes  before 
the  Discovery  of  Nineveh,"  1st  ed.,  London,  1887,  2  vols.  The  second 
edition  (London,  1894,  i  vol.),  an  abridgment  of  the  first,  and  omitting  a 
description  of  the  countries  through  which  Layard  and  Mitford  travelled 
together,  has  an  introductory  chapter  on  the  author's  life  and  work  by  his 
surviving  friend,  Lord  Aberdare. 


90  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  this  first  interesting  journey/  the  latter  finally  set  out 
upon  his  "Early  Adventures"  in  the  summer  of  1839, 
*' with  the  intention  ot  making  his  way  through  Turkey, 
Asia  Minor,  Syria,  Persia,  and  India  to  Ceylon,"  where  he 
expected  to  establish  himself  permanently.  Not  without 
difficulties  and  troublesome  incidents  the  two  associates 
reached  Jerusalem  in  January,  1840,  where  thev  separated 
for  a  little  while,  Mitford  declining  to  join  in  the  perilous 
excursion  to  the  ruins  of  Petra,  Ammon,  and  Jerash,  which 
Layard,  passionately  fond  of  adventures,  undertook  alone. 
Two  months  later  he  reached  Aleppo,  whence,  together 
with  Mitford,  he  travelled  to  Mosul  and  Baghdad,  During 
their  brief  stay  at  the  former  place,  the  two  travellers  met 
Ainsworth,  a  prominent  member  of  the  British  Euphrates 
Expedition,"  and  Christian  Rassam,  brother  of  the  later 
faithful  friend  and  assistant  of  Layard,  with  both  of  whom 
they  visited  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  Hammam  *Ali,  Qal'at 
Shirgat,  and  El-Hadhr.  It  was  in  the  month  of  April, 
1840,  in  connection  with  this  excursion  down  the  western 
bank  of  the  Tigris,  that  Layard,  from  an  artificial  eminence, 
for  the  first  time  looked  upon  the  line  of  lofty  mounds  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river,  called  Nimrud,  where  but  shortlv 
afterwards  he  w^as  to  raise  "  a  lasting  monument  to  his  own 
fame." 

Mitford  and  Layard  travelled  together  as  far  as  Rama- 
dan, whence  on  August  8  of  the  same  year  they  finally 
parted,  the  former  to  continue  his  long  and  difficult  journey 
to  Kandahar,  and  the  latter  to  engage  in  his  adventurous  life 
and  perilous  wanderings  among  the  wild  tribes  of  Persia  and 
*Iraq,  until  two  years  later,  when  we  find  him  again  at  Mosul, 

^  Edward  Ledwich  Mitford,  "  A  Land-March  from  England  to  Ceylon 
Forty  Years  Ago,  through  Dalmatia,  Montenegro,  Turkev,  Asia  Minor, 
Syria,  Palestine,  Assyria,  Persia,  Afghanistan,  Scinde,  and  India,"  London, 
1884,  2  vols. 

^  Comp.  pp.  57,  seqq.,  above. 


DURING   19TII  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND   BABYLONIA       91 

Stopping  there  for  a  little  while  on  his  way  from  Baghdad 
to  Constantinople.  Botta  had  meanwhile  been  appointed 
French  consular  agent,  and  tentatively  cut  a  trench  or  two 
in  the  mound  of  (^oyunjuk.  The  two  famous  explorers 
met  then  and  there  —  June,  1842  —  for  the  first  time,  the 
one  on  the  fair  road  to  a  great  discovery,  the  other  so  far 
disappointed  in  his  efforts  to  raise  the  necessary  funds  for 
similar  excavations.  Brief  as  this  first  meeting  was,  it  formed 
the  beginning  of  a  friendly  intercourse  between  the  two 
great  men,  Layard,  free  from  envy  and  jealousy,  always 
encouraging  Botta  in  his  labors,  and  particularly  calling  his 
attention  to  Nimriad,  the  one  place  above  others  which  he 
himself  so  eagerly  desired  to  explore,  when  the  paucity  of 
results  at  Ooyunjuk  threatened  to  dishearten  his  lonely 
friend. 

Robbed  as  he  frequently  was,  and  exposed  to  hardships 
and  dangers  of  every  kind,  repeatedly  even  at  the  point  of 
losing  his  life,  Layard  never  ceased  to  "  look  back  with 
feelings  of  grateful  delight  to  those  happy  days  when,  free 
and  unheeded,  we  left  at  dawn  the  humble  cottage  or 
cheerful  tent,  and  lingering  as  we  listed,  unconscious  of  dis- 
tance and  of  the  hour,  found  ourselves  as  the  sun  went 
down  under  some  hoary  ruin  tenanted  by  the  wandering 
Arab,  or  in  some  crumbling  village  still  bearing  a  well- 
known  name.  No  experienced  dragoman  measured  our 
distances  and  appointed  our  stations.  We  were  honored 
with  no  conversations  by  pashas,  nor  did  we  seek  any  civil- 
ities from  governors.  We  neither  drew  tears  nor  curses 
from  villagers  by  seizing  their  horses,  or  searching  their 
houses  for  provisions:  their  welcome  was  sincere;  their 
scanty  fare  was  placed  before  us  ;  we  ate  and  came  and  went 
in  peace." 

At  a  time  when  every  moment  the  chronic  dispute  as  to 
the  actual  boundary  line  between  Turkey  and  Persia  threat- 
ened to  lead  to  a  serious  war  which  might  prove  detrimental 


92  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

to  British  interests  in  those  countries,  Layard's  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  territory  in  dispute  proved  of  great  value 
to  Sir  Stratford  Canning  (afterwards  Lord  Stratford  de  Red- 
cliife),  then  British  ambassador  at  the  Porte  in  Constanti- 
nople, whither  our  traveller  had  hastened.  Though  for 
apparent  political  reasons  the  Russian  point  of  view  was 
finally  accepted  by  England,  much  against  Canning's  pro- 
test and  his  own  very  decided  conviction,  Layard  had  found 
in  this  man  of  influence  a  liberal  patron,  who  during  the  fol- 
lowing years  entrusted  him  with  many  important  missions, 
endeavoring  all  the  time  to  have  him  definitely  attached  to 
his  staff.  While  thus  waiting  at  the  shore  of  the  Bosphorus 
for  a  much  coveted  position,  Lavard  remained  in  regular 
correspondence  with  Botta,  whose  reports  and  drawings  he 
received  before  they  were  published.  The  latter's  unex- 
pected brilliant  success  at  Khorsabad  brought  him  new 
encouragement  for  his  ow^n  plans,  and  increased  his  hope 
and  desire  to  return  on  some  future  day  to  Mesopotamia 
and  excavate  the  ruins  of  Nineveh.  With  his  mind  firmly 
fixed  upon  this  one  object  of  his  life,  he  commenced  "  the 
study  of  the  Semitic  languages,  to  which  I  conjectured  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions  from  the  Assvrian  ruins  belonged."  ^ 
But  when  he  saw  Sir  Stratford  making  arrangements  for  a 
temporary  return  to  England,  he  became  tired  of  waiting 
longer  for  his  promised  attacheship,  and  one  day  spoke  to 
the  latter  of  his  ardent  desire  to  examine  the  mounds  near 
Mosul.  To  his  great  delight,  his  generous  patron  not  only 
approved  of  his  suggestion,  but  offered  _£6o  (=$300)  towards 
the  expenses  which  would  be  incurred  in   making  tentative 

^  Comp.  "  Early  Adventures,"  2d  edition,  p.  409.  We  quote  the 
above  statement  literally,  in  order  to  show  that  Layard,  with  his  well-known 
intuition,  divined  the  truth  later  established,  even  before  Lowenstein  ex- 
pressed the  same  thought  in  his  Essai  de  dechiffrement  de  /'  Ecriture  Assjrienne 
pour  servir  a  V  explication  du  Monument  de  Khorsabad,  Paris  and  Leipzig, 
1845,  pp.   12,  seq. 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       93 

excavations.  Who  was  happier  than  Layard  !  Without  a 
servant,  and  without  any  other  effects  than  a  pair  of  large 
saddle-bags,  but  with  a  cheerful  heart,  and,  above  all,  with 
this  modest  sum  in  his  pocket,  increased  by  a  few  pounds 
from  his  own  meagre  resources,  he  started  in  October,  i  845, 
to  excavate  Nineveh.  How  eagerly  Layard  turned  his  face 
towards  the  place  in  which  all  his  hopes  had  centred  for 
the  past  five  years  we  may  easily  infer  from  the  fact  that, 
like  a  Tartar,  he  travelled  by  day  and  night  without  rest, 
crossing  the  mountains  of  Kurdistan  and  galloping  over  the 
plains  of  Assyria,  until  he  reached  Mosul,  twelve  days  after 
his  departure  from  Samsun. 

First  Expedition,  184^-1841 .  Profiting  by  the  experi- 
ence of  Botta,  Layard  deemed  it  best  for  the  time  being  to 
conceal  the  real  object  of  his  journey  from  the  ill-disposed 
governor  and  the  inhabitants  of  Mosul.  On  the  8th  of 
November,  having  secretly  procured  a  few  tools,  he  left  the 
town  with  "  guns,  spears,  and  other  formidable  weapons," 
ostensibly  to  hunt  wild  boars  in  a  neighboring  district. 
Accompanied  by  Mr.  Ross,  a  British  resident  merchant, 
who  in  many  ways  facilitated  the  work  of  our  explorer  during 
his  long  stay  in  Assyria,  and  by  a  mason  and  two  servants, 
he  floated  down  the  Tigris  on  a  small  raft,  reaching  Nimrud 
the  same  night.  With  six  untrained  Arabs,  he  commenced 
work  at  two  different  points  of  the  ruins  on  the  following 
morning.  Like  the  mounds  of  Khorsabad,  the  ruins  of 
Nimrud  represent  a  clearly  defined  rectangular  parallelo- 
gram, rising  above  the  ground  as  a  plateau  of  considerable 
height  and  extent,  and  pointing  with  its  two  smaller  sides  to 
the  north  and  south  respectively.  A  lofty  cone,  from  the 
distance  strikingly  resembling  a  mountain  of  volcanic  origin, 
and  constituting  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  this 
conglomeration  of  furrowed  hills,  occupies  their  northwest 
corner.  During  the  early  spring  the  whole  mound  is 
clothed  with  a  luxuriant  growth  of  grass  and  many-colored 


94  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

flowers.  Black  Arab  tents  and  herds  of  grazing  sheep, 
watched  by  the  youngest  members  of  some  Bedouin  tribe, 
are  scattered  over  the  ruins,  relieving  the  monotony  of  the 
region  for  a  few  months.  But  when  the  rays  of  the  sun 
and  the  scorching  winds  from  the  desert  have  turned  the 
pleasant  picture  of  a  short  but  cheerful  life  again  into  a 
parched  and  barren  waste,  the  human  eye  wanders  unob- 
structed over  the  whole  plateau,  meeting  numerous  frag- 
ments of  stone  and  pottery  everywhere. 

The  absence  of  all  vegetation  in  November  enabled  Lay- 
ard  to  examine  the  remains  with  which  the  site  was  covered 
without  difficulty.  Following  up  the  result  of  this  general 
survey,  which  convinced  him  "  that  sculptured  remains  must 
still  exist  in  some  part  of  the  mound,"  he  placed  three  of  his 
workmen  at  a  spot  near  the  middle  of  the  west  side  of  the 
ruins,  and  the  other  three  at  the  southwest  corner.  Before 
night  interrupted  their  first  day's  labors,  they  had  partly 
excavated  two  chambers  lined  with  alabaster  slabs,  all  of  which 
bore  cuneiform  inscriptions  at  their  centres.  The  slabs  from 
the  chamber  in  the  northwest  section  of  the  mound  were  in 
a  fine  state  of  preservation,  while  those  from  the  southwest 
corner  evidently  had  been  exposed  to  intense  heat,  which 
had  cracked  them  in  every  part.  Remains  of  extensive 
buildings  had  thus  been  brought  to  light  within  a  few  hours. 
Soon  afterwards  it  became  apparent  that  Layard  had  dis- 
covered two  Assyrian  palaces  on  the  very  first  day  of  his 
excavations. 

Exceedingly  pleased  with  these  unexpected  results,  Lay- 
ard established  his  headquarters  at  once  in  the  least  ruined 
house  of  a  deserted  village  which  was  only  twenty  minutes' 
walk  from  the  scene  of  his  labors.  On  the  next  morning 
he  increased  his  force  by  five  Turcomans  from  Selamiye, 
situated  three  miles  farther  up  the  river,  a  place  to  which  he 
had  soon  to  remove  himself  in  consequence  of  the  hazards 
of  the  region  around  Nimriid.    On  the  third  day  he  opened 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA       95 

a  trench  in  the  high  conical  mound  at  the  northwest  corner, 
but  finding  nothing  but  fragments  of  inscribed  brick,  Httle 
appreciated  in  those  early  days  of  Assyrian  exploration,  he 
abandoned  this  section  again,  and  concentrated  his  eleven 
men  for  the  next  time  upon  the  southwest  corner  of  the 
ruins,  "  where  the  many  ramifications  of  the  building  already 
identified  promised  speedier  success."  A  few  days  later  he 
hurried  to  Mosul  to  acquaint  the  pasha  with  the  object  of 
his  researches.  A  tiny  piece  of  gold-leaf,  recently  discovered 
at  Nimrud,  had  already  found  its  way  into  the  writing-tray 
of  the  latter,  and  roused  his  suspicion.  Other  signs  indi- 
cated that  a  formidable  opposition  was  gradually  forming  to 
prevent  English  excavations.  Layard,  not  protected  by  a 
firman  from  the  Sultan,  recognized  what  was  coming.  But 
as  the  governor,  whose  greediness  had  reduced  the  whole 
province  to  utter  poverty  and  lawlessness,  had  not  as  yet 
openly  declared  against  his  proceedings,  our  explorer  lost 
no  time  to  push  his  researches  as  much  as  possible.  He 
sent  agents  to  several  conspicuous  ruins  between  the  Tigris 
and  the  Zab,  "  in  order  to  ascertain  the  existence  of  sculp- 
tured buildings  in  some  part  of  the  countrv,"  at  the  same 
time  increasing  his  own  party  to  thirty  men  at  the  south- 
west corner  of  Nimrud.  It  was  soon  found  that  the  inscrip- 
tions on  all  the  slabs  so  far  exposed  were  identical  with  those 
unearthed  in  the  northwest  building,  and  that  in  every  case 
a  few  letters  had  been  cut  away  at  the  edges  in  order  to 
make  the  stones  fit  into  the  wall.  "  From  these  facts  it 
became  evident  that  materials  taken  from  another  building 
had  been  used  "  in  the  construction  of  the  one  which  Layard 
was  exploring.  No  sculptures,  however,  had  so  far  been 
disclosed. 

Winter  rains  were  now  setting  in,  and  the  excavations 
proceeded  but  slowly.  The  hours  given  to  rest  in  the 
miserable  hovel  at  Selamiye  were  spent  most  uncomfort- 
ably.    The  roofs  of  the  house  were  leaking,  and  a  perfect 


96  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

torrent  descended  on  the  floor  and  the  rug  on  which  the 
explorer  was  lying.  "  Crouched  up  in  a  corner,  or  under  a 
rude  table,"  which  was  surrounded  by  trenches  to  carry  off 
the  accumulating  water,  he  usually  passed  the  night  on  these 
occasions.  Finally,  on  the  28th  of  November,  after  he  had 
ordered  to  clear  the  earth  away  from  both  sides  of  newly 
exposed  slabs,  the  first  bas-reliefs  were  discovered.  Layard 
and  his  Arabs  were  equally  excited,  and  notwithstanding  a 
violent  shower  of  rain,  they  worked  enthusiastically  until 
dark.  But  their  joy  did  not  last  very  long ;  the  next  day 
the  governor  of  Mosul  closed  the  excavations  at  Nimrud. 
French  jealousy,  Mohammedan  prejudices,  and  the  pasha's 
own  ill-will  were  equally  responsible  for  this  unfortunate 
result.  There  remained  nothing  for  Layard  but  to  acquiesce. 
At  his  own  request,  however,  a  qawwas  was  sent  to  the 
mounds  as  representative  of  the  Ottoman  government,  while 
he  pretended  only  to  draw  the  sculptures  and  copy  the  in- 
scriptions which  had  already  been  uncovered.  It  was  not 
difficult  for  him  to  induce  this  officer  to  allow  the  employ- 
ment of  a  ^t\sf  workmen  to  guard  the  sculptures  during  the 
dav.  In  reality,  they  were  sent  to  different  sections  of  the 
mound  to  search  for  other  sculptures  and  inscribed  monu- 
ments. The  experiment  was  very  successful.  Without 
being  interrupted  in  his  attempt,  Layard  uncovered  several 
large  figures,  uninjured  by  fire,  near  the  west  edge,  a  crouch- 
ing lion  at  the  southeast  corner,  the  torsos  of  a  pair  of 
gigantic  winged  bulls,  two  small  winged  lions,  likewise  muti- 
lated, and  a  human  figure  nine  feet  high,  in  the  centre  of 
the  mound.  Though  only  detached  and  unconnected  walls 
had  been  found  so  far,  "  there  was  no  longer  any  doubt  of 
the  existence  not  only  of  sculptures  and  inscriptions,  but 
even  of  vast  edifices,  in  the  interior  of  the  mound  of  Nim- 
rud." Nearly  six  weeks  of  undivided  attention  and  constant 
exposure  to  hardships  had  been  devoted  to  the  exploration 
of  the  ruins.     Layard  now  decided  to  lose  no  more  time  in 


DURING  I'JTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA       97 

Opening  new  trenches,  but  to  inform  Sir  Stratford  Canning 
how  successfully  the  first  part  of  his  mission  had  been  car- 
ried through,  and  to  urge  "  the  necessity  of  a  firman,  which 
would  prevent  any  future  interference  on  the  part  of  the 
authorities  or  the  inhabitants  of  the  country." 

Towards  the  end  of  1845  —  about  the  time  when  this 
letter  was  written — one  of  the  chief  obstacles  to  archaeo- 
logical research  in  Assyria  for  the  time  being  was  suddenly 
removed.  The  old  governor  was  replaced  by  an  enlightened, 
just,  and  tolerant  officer  of  the  new  school.  With  a  view 
of  quietly  awaiting  the  beneficial  result  of  this  radical  change 
in  the  administration  for  the  province  as  a  whole,  and  for 
his  own  work  at  Nimriid,  Layard  covered  over  the  sculp- 
tures brought  to  light,  and  withdrew  altogether  from  the 
ruins.  He  descended  the  Tigris  on  a  raft,  and  spent  Christ- 
mas with  Major  Rawlinson,  whom  he  desired  to  consult 
concerning  the  arrangements  to  be  made  for  the  removal  of 
the  sculptures  at  a  future  period.  The  two  great  English 
pioneers  met  then  for  the  first  time.  "It  was  a  happy 
chance  which  brought  together  two  such  men  as  Lavard 
and  Rawlinson  as  laborers  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same 
field,  but  each  with  his  special  task  —  each  strongest  where 
the  other  was  weakest  —  Layard,  the  excavator,  the  effec- 
tive task-master,  the  hard-working  and  judicious  gatherer 
together  of  materials  ;  and  Rawlinson,  the  classical  scholar, 
the  linguist,  the  diligent  student  of  history,  the  man  at  once 
of  wide  reading  and  keen  insight,  the  cool,  dispassionate 
investigator  and  weigher  of  evidence.  The  two  men  mutu- 
ally esteemed  and  respected  each  other,  and  they  were  ready 
to  assist  each  other  to  the  utmost  of  their  power."  ^ 

At  the  beginning  of  January,  1 846,  Layard  returned  to 
Mosul.  The  change  since  his  departure  had  been  as  sudden 
as  great.     A  few  conciliatory  acts   on  the  part  of  the  new 

^  Comp.  George  Rawlinson,  "  A  Memoir  of  Major-General  Sir  Henry 
Creswicke  Rawlinson,"  London,  1898,  p.   152. 


98  EXPLORATIONS   IN    BIBLE  LANDS    ■ 

governor  had  quickly  restored  confidence  among  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  province.  Even  the  Bedouins  were  returning 
to  their  old  camping  grounds  between  the  Tigris  and  Zab, 
from  which  for  a  long  while  they  had  been  excluded.  The 
incessant  winter  rains  had  brought  forward  the  vegetation  of 
the  spring,  and  the  surface  and  sides  of  Nimrud  were  clothed 
in  a  pleasing  green.  Security  having  been  established  in 
this  part  of  the  country,  the  mound  itself  now  offered  a 
more  convenient  and  more  agreeable  residence  to  Layard 
than  the  distant  village  of  Selamiye.  Accompanied  by  a 
number  of  workmen  and  by  Hormuzd  Rassam,  an  intelli- 
gent Chaldean  Christian  and  brother  of  the  British  vice- 
consul  at  Mosul,  who  henceforth  acted  as  his  reliable  agent 
and  overseer,  he  therefore  moved  at  once  to  his  new  dwell- 
ing-place at  Nimrud.  The  polite  governor  had  off^ered  no 
objection  to  the  continuation  of  his  labors,  but  another 
month  elapsed  before  he  could  venture  to  resume  his  ex- 
cavations. For  the  qadi  of  Mosul  once  more  had  stirred 
up  the  people  of  the  town  against  the  explorer,  so  that  it 
was  found  necessary  to  postpone  work  until  the  storm  had 
passed  away. 

It  was  near  the  middle  of  February  before  Layard  could 
make  some  fresh  experiments  at  the  southwest  corner  of 
the  mound.  Slab  after  slab  was  exposed,  bv  which  it  was 
proved  that  "  the  building  had  not  been  entirely  destroyed 
by  fire,  but  had  been  partly  exposed  to  gradual  decay." 
But  in  order  to  arouse  the  necessary  interest  in  England, 
he  needed  much  better  preserved  sculptures.  Abandoning, 
therefore,  the  edifice,  which  until  then  had  received  his 
principal  attention,  he  placed  the  workmen  at  the  centre  of 
a  ravine  which  ran  far  into  the  west  side  of  the  mound,  near 
the  spot  where  he  had  previously  unearthed  the  first  com- 
plete monuments.  His  labors  here  were  followed  by  an 
immediate  success.  He  came  upon  a  large  hall,  in  which 
all  the  slabs  were  not  only  in  their  original  position,  but  in 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       99 

the  finest  state  of  preservation.  It  soon  became  evident  that 
he  had  found  the  earHest  palace  of  Nimrud,  from  which 
many  of  the  sculptures  employed  in  the  construction  of  the 
southwest  building  had  been  quarried. 

On  the  morning  following  these  discoveries  he  rode  to 
the  encampment  of  a  neighboring  shaikh,  and  was  return- 
ing to  his  trenches,  when  he  observed  two  Arabs  of  the 
latter's  tribe  "  urging  their  mares  to  the  top  of  their  speed. 
On  approaching  him  they  stopped.  '  Hasten,  O  Bey,' 
exclaimed  one  of  them  ;  '  hasten  to  the  diggers,  for  they 
have  found  Nimrod  himself  Wallah,  it  is  wonderful,  but 
it  is  true  !  we  have  seen  him  with  our  eyes.  There  is  no 
God  but  God  ; '  and  both  joining  in  this  pious  exclama- 
tion, they  galloped  off  without  further  words  in  the  direc- 
tion of  their  tents."  On  reaching  the  ruins,  he  ascertained 
that  the  workmen  had  discovered  the  enormous  human 
head  of  one  of  those  winged  lions  which  now  adorn  the 
British  Museum.  An  equally  well  preserved  corresponding 
figure  was  disclosed  before  nightfall  about  twelve  feet  away 
in  the  rubbish,  both  forming  the  southern  entrance  into  a 
chamber.  Unfortunately  "  one  of  the  workmen,  on  catching 
the  first  glimpse  of  the  monster,  had  thrown  down  his 
basket  and  run  off  towards  Mosul  as  fast  as  his  legs  could 
carry  him.  ...  He  had  scarcely  checked  his  speed  before 
reaching  the  bridge.  Entering  breathless  into  the  bazaars, 
he  announced  to  every  one  he  met  that  Nimrod  had  ap- 
peared." The  result  of  this  unexpected  occurrence  became 
quickly  apparent.  The  governor,  "  not  remembering  very 
clearly  whether  Nimrod  was  a  true-believing  prophet  or  an 
infidel,"  sent  a  somewhat  unintelligible  message  "to  the 
effect  that  the  remains  should  be  treated  with  respect,  and  be 
by  no  means  further  disturbed,  and  that  he  wished  the  exca- 
vations to  be  stopped  at  once."  This  was  practically  the 
last  interference  with  Layard's  work  on  the  part  of  the 
Mohammedan  population.      In  accordance  with  the  official 


100  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

request,  the  operations  were  discontinued  until  the  general 
excitement  in  the  town  had  somewhat  subsided.  Onlv  two 
workmen  were  retained,  who  by  the  end  of  March  discov- 
ered a  second  pair  of  winged  human-headed  lions,  differing 
considerably  in  form  from  those  previously  unearthed,  but 
likewise  covered  with  very  fine  cuneiform  inscriptions.  Not 
many  days  afterwards,  the  much  desired  firman  was  finallv 
received  from  Constantinople.  It  was  as  comprehensive  as 
possible,  "authorizing  the  continuation  of  the  excavations, 
and  the  removal  ot  such  objects  as  might  be  discovered." 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  so  far  encountered  had  now 
disappeared  completely.  Still,  the  necessarv  financial  support 
was  wanting,  and  Layard  had  to  pursue  his  researches  as  best 
he  could  with  the  rapidly  decreasing  small  means  at  his  dis- 
posal. But  bold  as  he  was,  and  thoroughly  enjoying  the  newly 
obtained  privilege,  he  began  at  that  very  time  to  cut  his  first 
tentative  trenches  into  the  mound  of  Ooyunjuk,  opposite 
Mosul.  Notwithstanding  all  his  poverty,  and  regardless  of 
the  French  consul's  unwarranted  opposition,  he  continued 
his  excavations  on  the  southern  face,  where  the  mound  was 
highest,  for  about  a  month,  until  he  had  convinced  himself, 
from  fragments  of  sculptures  and  inscribed  bricks,  "  that  the 
remains  were  those  of  a  building  contemporarv,  or  nearly 
so,  with  Khorsabad,  and  consequently  of  a  more  recent 
epoch  than  the  most  ancient  palace  of  Nimrud."  Mean- 
while, the  almost  intolerable  heat  of  the  Assyrian  summer 
had  commenced.  Hot  winds  and  flights  of  locusts  soon 
destroyed  what  had  been  left  of  the  green  plants  of  the 
desert  and  the  few  patches  of  cultivation  along  the  river. 
Yet  Layard  felt  little  inclined  to  yield  to  circumstances 
which  drove  even  the  Bedouins  into  more  northern  dis- 
tricts. He  was  still  under  the  refreshing  influence  of  a  brief 
visit  which,  with  a  cheerful  party  of  Christian  and  Moham- 
medan ladies  and  gentlemen  from  Mosul,  he  had  paid  to 
the  principal  shaikh  of  the  Shammar  and  to  the  lonely  ruins 


DURING   19TH    CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      101 

of  El-Hadhr,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Tigris,  during  the 
recent  suspension  of  his  work.  No  wonder,  then,  that,  after 
his  excavations  at  Qoyunjuk,  he  returned  to  Nimrud  again, 
and  with  about  thirty  men  resumed  his  examination  of  the 
contents  and  extent  of  the  large  northwest  building,  which 
had  previously  furnished  the  well-preserved  monuments. 
His  Arabs,  standing  completely  under  the  spell  of  his  per- 
sonal magnetism,  seemed  to  feel  as  much  interest  in  the 
objects  disclosed  as  their  enthusiastic  master.  As  each  head 
of  all  these  strange  figures  was  uncovered,  "  they  showed 
their  amazement  by  extravagant  gestures  or  exclamations  of 
surprise.  If  it  was  a  bearded  man,  they  concluded  at  once 
that  it  was  an  idol  or  a.  Jin,  and  cursed  or  spat  upon  it.  If 
a  eunuch,  they  declared  that  it  was  the  likeness  of  a  beau- 
tiful female,  and  kissed  or  patted  the  cheek." 

By  the  end  of  July  so  many  fine  bas-reliefs  had  been 
discovered  in  this  building  that  Layard  decided  to  make  an 
effort  to  send  a  representative  collection  to  England.  Raw- 
linson's  attempt  at  despatching  the  small  steamer  Nitocris, 
commanded  by  Felix  Jones,  directly  to  Nimriad  for  their 
embarkation  to  Baghdad,  failed.  Layard  was  therefore 
obliged  to  follow  Botta's  example  and  forward  the  smaller 
sculptures,  the  weight  of  which  was  reduced  by  cutting  from 
the  back,  on  a  raft  to  Basra,  which  they  reached  safely  some 
time  in  August.  The  explorer's  health  began  now  visibly 
to  suffer  from  continual  exposure  to  the  excessive  heat.  A 
week's  stay  at  Mosul,  during  which  he  discovered  a  gate- 
way flanked  by  two  mutilated  winged  figures  and  cuneiform 
inscriptions  with  the  name  of  Sennacherib  in  the  northern 
boundary  wall  of  Qoyunjuk,  seemed  to  have  refreshed  him 
sufficiently  to  warrant  his  return  to  Nimrud.  He  uncov- 
ered the  tops  of  many  more  slabs,  bearing  either  similar 
sculptures  or  having  only  the  usual  inscription  across  them  ; 
but  before  August  was  over  it  was  very  evident  that  he 
required  a  cooler  climate  to  regain  his  former  vigor.     Leav- 


102  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

ing,  therefore,  a  few  guards  at  the  mound  to  protect  his 
antiquities,  and  accompanied  by  Rassam  and  a  few  servants 
and  irregular  soldiers,  he  departed  to  the  Tiyari  Mountains, 
to  the  north  of  Mosul.  The  next  two  months  were  given 
entirely  to  rest  and  to  his  old  favorite  wanderings  among 
the  mountains  and  valleys  of  Kurdistan.  The  beautiful 
scenery  and  the  exhilarating  climate  of  these  romantic  dis- 
tricts, in  which  Kurdish  tribes,  Chaldean  Christians,  and 
the  remarkable  sect  of  the  Yezidis  or  "  Worshippers  of  the 
Devil,"  followed  each  their  peculiar  habits  and  interesting 
customs,  soon  completely  restored  him  to  health. 

Towards  the  end  of  October,  after  his  return  from  an 
expedition  into  the  Sinjar  Mountains,  on  which  he  had 
accompanied  the  pasha  of  Mosul  and  his  soldiers,  we  find 
him  again  in  the  trenches  of  Nimrud.  Important  changes 
had  taken  place  during  his  absence  with  regard  to  the  char- 
acter of  his  excavations.  So  far  they  had  been  conducted 
as  a  private  undertaking  for  the  account  of  Sir  Stratford 
Canning.  Letters  were  now  received  from  England  advis- 
ing him  that  the  latter  had  presented  the  sculptures  dis- 
covered in  Assyrian  ruins,  together  with  all  the  privileges 
connected  with  the  imperial  firman,  to  the  British  nation. 
In  consequence  of  this  generous  act  of  the  ambassador,  a 
grant  of  funds  had  been  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  British 
Museum  "  for  the  continuation  of  the  researches  commenced 
at  Nimriad  and  elsewhere."  This  part  of  the  news  was 
encouraging,  but,  alas,  the  grant  was  very  small,  consider- 
ably smaller  than  the  sum  given  by  the  French  government 
to  Botta  for  the  exploration  of  Khorsabad.  And  the  British 
grant  was  to  include  even  "  private  expenses,  those  of  car- 
riage, and  many  extraordinary  outlays  inevitable  in  the 
East."  But  though  the  funds  were  scarcely  adequate  to  the 
objects  in  view,  Lavard  accepted  the  charge  of  superintend- 
ing the  excavations,  and  made  every  exertion  to  procure 
as  many  antiquities  as  possible.      In  the  interest  of  science 


DUBING  lorn  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       103 

It  remains  a  cause  of  deep  regret  that  after  his  great  dis- 
coveries,   Layard   did   not   at   once   find    the   same   hearty 
support  in  England  as  his  more  fortunate  French  colleague 
so  speedily  had  obtained  in  Paris.      Not  even  an  artist  was 
despatched  to  draw  the  sculptures  and  copy  the  inscriptions, 
though  many  of  the  monuments  "  were  in  too  dilapidated  a 
condition  to  be  removed,"  and  though  Layard  "  had  neither 
knowledge  nor  experience  as  a  draughtsman,  —  a  disquali- 
fication which  he  could  scarcely  hope  to  overcome."      He 
was  thus  practically  prevented  by  his  own  government  from 
making  a  methodical    exploration    of  Nimriad.      And    this 
lack  of  method,  system,  and    thoroughness  unfortunately 
remained  a  characteristic  feature  of  most  of  the  following 
English  excavations  in  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  ruins,  —  a 
lack  felt  by  nobody  more  keenly  than   by  Layard,  Loftus, 
and  all  the  other  great  British  explorers.     Let  us  hear  what 
Layard  himself  has  to  say  on  this  system  of  unscientific  pil- 
lage, justified  to  a  certain  degree  only  at  the  beginning  of 
his  excavations,  but  entirely  to  be  condemned  as  soon  as 
they  were  carried  on  under  the  auspices  of  a  great  nation. 
"The  smallness  of  the   sum  placed  at  mv  disposal  com- 
pelled me  to  follow  the  same  plan  in  the  excavations  that  I 
had  hitherto  adopted  —  viz.,  to  dig  trenches  along  the  sides 
of  the  chambers,  and  to  expose  the  whole  of  the  slabs,  with- 
out removing  the  earth  from  the  centre.      Thus,  few  of  the 
chambers  were  fully  explored,  and  many  small   objects  of 
great  interest  may  have  been   left  undiscovered.      As  I  was 
directed  to  bury  the  building  with  earth  after  I  had  explored 
it,  to  avoid  unnecessary  expense  I  filled  up  the   chambers 
with  the  rubbish  taken  from  those  subsequently  uncovered, 
having  first  examined  the  walls,  copied  the  inscriptions,  and 
drawn  the  sculptures."      From  many  other  similar  passages 
in  his  books  we  quote  only  the  following  two,  in  which  he 
complains  :  "  As  the  means  at  my  disposal  did  not  warrant 
any  outlay  in  making  more  experiments  without  the  promise 
9 


104  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  the  discovery  of  something  to  carry  away,  I  felt  myself 
compelled,  much  against  my  inclination,  to  abandon  the 
excavations  in  this  part  of  the  mound,  after  uncovering 
portions  of  two  chambers."  Or  again  :  "  If,  after  carrying 
a  trench  to  a  reasonable  depth  and  distance,  no  remains  of 
sculpture  or  inscription  appeared,  I  abandoned  it  and  re- 
newed the  experiment  elsewhere." 

In  view  of  the  unsatisfactory  manner  in  which  the  exca- 
vations at  Nimrud  were  now  conducted,  it  would  be  an 
exceedingly  unpleasant  task  to  follow  Layard  into  all  the 
different  trenches  which  he  cut  at  many  parts  of  the  mound 
for  no  other  purpose  than  to  obtain  the  largest  possible 
number  of  well-preserved  objects  of  art  at  the  least  possible 
outlay  of  time  and  money.  The  winter  season  was  fast 
approaching.  In  order  to  protect  himself  sufficiently  against 
the  dangers  of  the  climate  and  the  thievish  inclinations 
of  the  marauding  Bedouins,  he  constructed  his  own  house 
in  the  plain  near  the  ruins,  and  settled  the  Arab  workmen 
with  their  families  and  friends  around  this  temporary  abode. 
Fifty  strong  Nestorian  Christians,  who  wielded  the  pickaxe 
in  the  trenches,  were  quartered  with  their  wives  and  children 
in  a  house  on  the  mound  itself.  By  the  first  of  November 
the  excavations  were  recommenced  on  a  large  scale  at  dif- 
ferent sections  :  at  the  northwest  and  southwest  buildings,  in 
the  centre  of  the  mound,  near  the  gigantic  bulls  mentioned 
above  ;  in  the  southeast  corner,  where  no  walls  as  yet  had 
been  discovered,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  ruins  hitherto 
unexamined.  The  first  six  weeks  following  this  new  arrange- 
ment "  were  amongst  the  most  prosperous  and  fruitful  in 
events "  during  all  his  researches  in  Assvria.  Scarcely  a 
day  passed  by  without  some  new  and  important  discovery. 
The  trenches  carried  to  a  considerable  depth  in  the  south- 
east corner  yielded  at  first  nothing  but  inscribed  bricks  and 
pottery  and  several  clav  coffins  of  a  late  period  ;  but  those 
in  the  southwest  palace  brought  to  light  a  number  of  very 


DURING  I'yrii  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA       105 

valuable  antiquities.  Among  other  relics  of  the  past,  Layard 
found  a  crouching  lion  in  alabaster,  a  pair  of  winged  lions 
in  a  coarse  limestone,  the  bodies  of  two  lions  carved  out  of 
one  stone  and  forming  a  pedestal  ;  the  statues  of  two  exqui- 
site but  crumbling  sphinxes,  and  several  interesting  bas-reliefs 
uniting  the  head  of  an  eagle  or  a  lion  with  the  body  and  arms 
of  a  man.  He  could  now  definitely  prove  that  the  slabs 
hitherto  found  in  this  section  of  the  mound,  and  originally 
chiefly  brought  from  the  northwest  edifice,  were  never  meant 
to  be  exposed  to  view  in  the  later  palace,  "  They  were,  in 
fact,  placed  against  the  wall  of  sun-dried  bricks,  and  the 
back  of  the  slab,  smoothed  preparatory  to  being  resculp- 
tured,  was  turned  towards  the  interior  of  the  chambers."  In 
order  to  ascertain,  therefore,  the  name  of  the  king  who  built 
this  palace,  he  had  to  dig  behind  the  slabs.  By  continu- 
ing his  researches  in  this  new  light,  he  soon  found  cuneiform 
inscriptions  which  bore  the  name  of  Esarhaddon,  king  of 
Assyria  (2  Kings  19:37). 

Important  as  all  these  discoveries  turned  out  to  be,  they 
were  far  surpassed  by  his  finds  in  two  other  sections  of 
the  ruins.  In  the  largest  room  of  the  northwest  palace, 
which  apparently  had  served  as  the  royal  reception  hall, 
a  series  of  the  most  beautiful  and  most  interesting  sculp- 
tures were  brought  to  light,  glorifying  King  Ashurnasirapal 
(885-860  B.  c.)  in  war  and  peace.  All  the  scenes  are  real- 
istic and  full  of  life,  executed  with  great  care  and  spirit. 
Here  the  monarch  is  followed  by  his  warriors,  himself  stand- 
ing in  a  chariot  and  discharging  arrows,  while  enemies  are 
tumbling  from  their  horses  or  falling  from  the  turrets  of  a 
besieged  city  ;  there,  in  a  boat,  he  is  crossing  a  river  full  of 
tortoises  and  fishes,  and  lined  with  date-groves  and  gardens  ; 
then,  again,  he  receives  the  prisoners,  led  by  warriors  and 
counted  by  scribes,  or  he  is  returning  victoriously  in  pro- 
cession, followed  by  his  army  and  preceded  by  musicians 
and  standard-bearers,  while   above   them  fly  vultures  with 


lOG  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

human  heads  in  their  talons.  In  other  smaller  chambers 
close  by  the  principal  hall,  Layard  found  a  number  of  bot- 
tles in  glass  and  alabaster,  bearing  the  name  and  titles  of 
Sargon,  who  lived  150  years  later,  and,  furthermore,  he 
rescued  from  the  rubbish  sixteen  copper  lions,  having  served 
as  weights,  and  a  large  quantity  of  iron  scales  of  Assyrian 
armor  and  several  perfect  helmets  in  copper,  immediately 
falling  to  pieces,  which  in  a  welcome  manner  helped  to 
interpret  the  sculptures  on  the  walls. 

It  was  in  the  central  building,  however,  that  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  and  important  discoveries  awaited  the 
explorer.  From  a  brick  which  apparently  contained  the 
genealogv  of  the  builder,^  he  concluded  correctly  at  once 
that  this  third  palace  had  been  constructed  by  "  the  son  of 
the  founder  of  the  earlier  [northwest]  edifice."  He  next 
came  upon  slabs  with  gigantic  winged  figures,  and  upon  the 
fragments  of  a  large  winged  bull  in  yellow  limestone.  The 
trench  had  reached  the  considerable  length  of  fifty  feet 
without  yielding  any  valuable  antiquity,  and  Layard  was 
already  planning  to  abandon  his  researches  in  this  part  of 
the  mound  as  fruitless,  when  suddenly  an  obelisk  of  black 
marble,  nearly  seven  feet  high,  lying  on  its  side,  but  in 
admirable  preservation,  was  unearthed  by  his  workmen. 
It  was  the  famous  obelisk  of  King  Shalmaneser  II.  (860- 
825  B.  c),  who  had  erected  this  stele  of  victory  in  his 
palace  to  commemorate  the  leading  military  events  of 
his  government.  Sculptured  on  all  four  sides,  it  shows 
twenty  small  bas-reliefs,  and  above,  below,  and  between 
them  210  lines  of  cuneiform  inscription,  containing  the 
interesting  passage  above  the  second  series  of  reliefs  :  "  I 
received  the  tribute  of  Jehu,  son  of  Omri,  silver,  gold,  etc." 
(comp.   I    Kings   19:16,  seq.;    2   Kings,  chaps.    9   and   10). 

'  As  Layard  was  able  to  determine  from  the  repeated  occurrence  of  the 
two  cuneiform  signs  for  "son"  and  "king,"  which  even  then  had  been 
recognized  as  such  by  the  decipherers. 


DURING  WTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      107 


Until  the  present  day  this 
black  obelisk  has  remained  one 
of  the  choicest  historical  monu- 
ments ever  rescued  from  the 
mounds  of  Assyria.  Layard 
was  not  slow  in  recognizing  the 
exceptional  value  of  this  pre- 
cious relic.  It  was  at  once 
packed  carefully,  and  a  gang  of 
trustworthy  Arabs  were  placed 
near  it  at  night,  until  shortly 
afterwards,  on  Christmas  day, 
1846,  with  twenty -two  other 
cases  of  antiquities,  it  could  be 
safely  sent  to  Rawlinson,  who, 
a  few  months  later,  wrote  the 
first  tentative  exposition  of  the 
contents  of  its  inscription.^ 

The  first  four  months  of 
1847  were  devoted  principally 
to  the  exploration  of  the  large 
northwest  palace  of  Ashurnasir- 
apal,  where  the  sculptures  and 
inscriptions,  not  having  been 
exposed  to  a  conflagration,  as  a 
rule  were  found  in  admirable 
preservation.  By  the  end  of 
April,  Layard  had  explored 
twenty-eight  halls  and  cham- 
bers, sometimes  painted  with 
figures  and  ornaments  on  a  thin     th.  ri.i.  rm  r  u   f-Qi,  1  tt 

'-'     _  J.  lie  iSlack  Obelisk  or  Shalmanesei-  11. 

coating    of    plaster,    but    more 

frequently  cased  with  alabaster  slabs  representing  the  mon- 
arch's wars   and  hunting  expeditions,  large  winged   figures 
^  In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  dated  June  19,  1847. 


108  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

separated  by  the  sacred  tree,  various  religious  ceremonies, 
and  elaborate  scroll-work.  Besides  these  larger  monu- 
ments, he  discovered  numerous  smaller  objects  of  art,  such 
as  ivory  ornaments  betraying  Egyptian  origin  or  influence, 
three  lions'  paws  in  copper,  difl^erent  vases  in  clay  and  metal, 
and  many  baked  bricks  elaborately  painted  with  animals, 
flowers,  and  cuneiform  characters,  which  apparently  had 
decorated  the  walls  above  the  sculptures. 

In  the  ruins  of  the  central  edifice,  which,  with  the  north- 
west palace,  had  been  used  as  a  quarry  to  supply  material 
for  the  southwest  palace,  he  uncovered  over  one  hundred 
sculptured  slabs  "packed  in  rows,  one  against  the  other," 
and  "  placed  in  a  regular  series,  according  to  the  subjects 
upon  them."  Nearlv  all  the  trenches  W'hich  he  opened  in 
difi'erent  parts  of  the  mound,  particularly,  also,  in  the  south- 
east corner  and  near  the  west  edge,  exposed  to  view  traces 
of  buildings,  brick  pavements,  remains  of  walls  and  cham- 
bers, and  fragments  of  sculptures.  In  his  endeavor  "to 
ascertain  the  nature  of  the  wall  surrounding  the  inner 
buildings,"  he  found  it  to  be  nearly  fifty  feet  thick,  con- 
structed of  sun-dried  bricks,  and  in  its  centre  containing  the 
first  Assvrian  arch  ever  discovered. 

Until  the  end  of  April,  thirteen  pairs  of  the  gigantic 
winged  bulls  and  lions  and  several  fragments  of  others  had 
rewarded  his  labors.  The  authorities  in  London,  not  contem- 
plating the  removal  of  anv  of  these  enormous  sculptures  for 
the  present,  had  determined  that  they  "  should  not  be  sawn 
into  pieces,  to  be  put  together  again  in  Europe,  as  the  pair 
of  bulls  sent  from  Khorsabad  to  Paris,"  but  that  they  were 
to  remain  at  Nimrud  covered  with  earth,  "until  some  favor- 
able opportunity  of  moving  them  entire  might  occur."  But 
Lavard  was  not  the  man  to  leave  behind  the  most  imposing 
of  all  the  monuments  unearthed,  without  making  a  serious 
efix)rt  to  ship  them.  Accordinglv  he  selected  one  of  the 
best-preserved  smaller  bulls  and  a  similar  lion,  and  strained 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY :  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      109 

his  brain  and  resources  to  the  utmost  to  move  them.  With 
infinite  toil  and  skill  he  succeeded.^  On  the  22d  of  April, 
the  two  large  monuments,  with  the  finest  bas-reliefs  and 
above  thirty  cases  of  smaller  objects  found  in  the  ruins,  as  a 
third  cargo,  left  the  mound  on  rafts  for  Basra,  where  they 
arrived  safelv,  and  were  transshipped  later  to  England. 
According  to  the  instructions  received  from  the  trustees 
of  the  British  Museum,  the  Assyrian  palaces,  which  for  a 
short  while  had  been  exposed  to  the  light  of  day,  as  the 
last  remains  of  the  Biblical  city  of  Calah  (Gen.  lo  :  i  i ), 
telling  their  wonderful  stories  of  human  glory  and  decay, 
were  soon  reburied." 

By  the  middle  of' May,  Layard  had  finished  his  work  and 
left  Nimriad.  But  he  did  not  quit  the  banks  of  the  Tigris 
without  having  opened  trenches  at  two  other  ruins.  In  the 
course  of  the  first  months  of  1 847,  he  had  found  an  oppor- 
tunity to  visit  the  mound  of  Oal'at  Shirgat,  notoriously  dan- 
gerous as  "  a  place  of  rendezvous  for  all  plundering  parties." 
A  first  general  description  of  the  ruins  had  been  given  by 
Ainsworth,^  with  whom  he  had  explored  this  neighborhood 
seven  years  before.  The  large  extent  of  the  mounds,  which 
in  size  compare  favorably  with  those  of  Nimrud  and  Qoyun- 
juk,  and  "a  tradition  current  amongst  the  Arabs  that  strange 
figures  carved  in  black  stone  still  existed  among  the  ruins," 
had  excited  his  curiosity  anew.  He  therefore  sent  a  few 
gangs  of  Arab  workmen  down  the  river  to  excavate  at 
the  most  promising  points.  Shortly  afterwards  he  himself 
followed,  spending  two  davs  at  the  ruins  in  company  with  a 
shaikh  of  the  Jebur,  who  w-as  in  search  of  fresh  pastures  for 
the  flocks  of  his  tribe.      The  hasty  excavations,  carried  on 

^   Comp.  the  illustration  facing  p.  93. 

-  "  The  present  surface  of  Nimrud  is  a  picture  of  utter  destruction,"  many 
of  the  slabs  and  sculptures  which  could  not  be  removed  being  only  half  bur- 
ied.     Comp.  Sachau,  Jm  Euphrat  und  Tigris,  Leipzig,  1900,  p.   105. 

^  In  the  "Journal  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,"  vol.  xi. 


110  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

principally  on  the  western  side  of  the  mound,  brought  to 
light  only  a  mutilated  but  very  interesting  sitting  figure  in 
black  basalt,  of  life  size,  and  on  three  sides  covered  with  a 
cuneiform  inscription  of  Shalmaneser  II.,  inscribed  bricks 
of  the  same  ruler,  bits  of  boundary  stones,  fragments  of  slabs 
with  cuneiform  characters,  and  a  few  tombs  with  their  usual 
contents  belonging  to  a  late  period.  Layard  tried  to  have 
researches  at  this  much  exposed  site  continued  under  the 
superintendence  of  a  Nestorian  Christian,  even  after  his  de- 
parture, but  repeated  attacks  from  the  Bedouins  forced  his 
workmen  soon  to  withdraw.  The  sitting  figure,  as  the  first 
Assyrian  statue  discovered,  was  later  sent  by  Mr.  Ross,  whom 
we  have  mentioned  above,  to  London. 

A  small  sum  of  money  still  remained  after  Layard  had 
closed  his  trenches  at  Nimrud.  He  proposed,  therefore, 
to  devote  it  to  a  renewed  personal  search  for  the  ruins 
of  Nineveh  in  the  mounds  opposite  Mosul.  The  preju- 
dices of  the  Mohammedan  population  forbidding  explora- 
tions at  Nebi  Yunus,  as  we  have  seen  in  connection  with 
Botta's  attempts,  he  devoted  a  month  of  concentrated 
attention  to  the  mound  of  Ooyunjuk,  where  he  had  cut  a 
few  trenches  in  the  previous  vear.  His  Arab  basket  men 
pitched  their  tents  on  the  summit  of  the  mound,  the  Nes- 
torian diggers  at  its  foot,  while  he  himself  spent  the  nights 
in  the  town  and  the  days  in  the  field.  Well  acquainted 
with  the  nature  and  position  of  Assyrian  palaces  as  he  was 
from  his  experience  at  Nimrud,  he  now  set  to  work  at  first 
to  discover  the  platform  of  sun-dried  bricks  upon  which 
large  edifices  were  generally  constructed.  At  a  depth  of 
twenty  feet  he  reached  it,  as  he  had  expected.  His  next 
move  was  to  open  long  trenches  to  its  level  in  different 
directions  near  the  southwest  corner,  until  one  morning 
the  workmen  came  upon  a  wall,  and  following  it,  found  an 
entrance  formed  by  winged  bulls,  and  leading  into  a  hall. 
After  four  weeks'  labor,  nine  long;  and  narrow  chambers  of 


DURING  lOTir  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      111 

a  large  building  destroyed  by  fire  had  been  explored.  In 
consequence  of  the  conflagration  most  of  the  bas-reliefs, 
about  ten  feet  high  and  from  eight  to  nine  feet  wide,  and 
four  pairs  of  human-headed  winged  bulls,  all  of  which  had 
lined  the  walls,  were  reduced  to  lime.  Perfect  inscriptions 
were  not  very  numerous,  except  on  the  bricks.  But  enough 
of  the  writing  remained  to  show  that  Layard  had  discovered 
the  first  Assyrian  palace  in  the  long-forgotten  and  ruined 
city  of  Nineveh,  The  monuments  were  too  much  destroyed 
to  think  of  their  removal.  "  A  fisherman  fishing  with  hook 
and  line  in  a  pond  "  was  almost  the  only  fragment  of  sculp- 
ture which  Layard  could  send  home  as  a  first  specimen 
of  Assyrian  art  from  Sennacherib's  palace  at  Nineveh.  Two 
more  chambers,  several  other  slabs,  and  a  fairly  preserved 
boundary  stone  with  a  long  inscription  were  soon  afterwards 
discovered  by  Ross  in  another  wing  of  the  same  building. 

On  the  24th  of  June,  1847,  Layard,  accompanied  by 
Rassam,  left  Mosul  to  return  to  Constantinople  and  Eng- 
land. The  ruins  which  he  had  examined  were,  to  quote  his 
own  words,  "  very  inadequately  explored."  But  with  all 
his  enthusiasm,  energy,  and  constant  exposure  to  dangers, 
he  could  do  no  better,  considering  the  very  small  means  at 
his  disposal  and  the  demands  made  upon  him.  After  nearly 
two  years  of  solid  labor  the  tangible  results  were  enormous. 
He  had  identified  the  sites  of  the  Biblical  Calah  (Nimrud) 
and  Nineveh,  the  capital  of  the  Assyrian  empire  (in  part 
represented  by  Ooyunjuk),  as  the  inscriptions  unearthed 
soon  taught  us.  Moreover,  he  had  discovered  remains 
of  no  less  than  eight  Assyrian  palaces.  At  Nimriad,  he 
found  the  northwest  palace  constructed  by  Ashurnasirapal  1. 
(885-860  B.  c),  and,  in  part  at  least,  restored  and  reoccupied 
by  Sargon  (722-705  b.  c.)  ;  the  central  palace  erected  by  Shal- 
maneser  II.  (860-825  b.  c),  and  rebuilt  almost  entirely  by 
the  Biblical  Pul  or  Tiglath-Pileser  III.  (745-727  b.  c.)  ;  ^ 

^  The  great  inscribed  bulls  and   the   black  obelisk  belonged  to  the  older 


112  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

between  these  two,  at  the  west  edge  of  the  mound,  a  smaller 
palace  of  Adadnirari  III.  (812-783  b.  c);  in  the  southwest 
corner  the  palace  of  Esarhaddon  (681-668  b.  c),  who  largely 
employed  older  materials  from  the  northwest  and  central 
palaces  ;  and  in  the  southeast  corner  the  insignificant  remains 
of  a  building  of  Ashuretililani  (after  626  b.  c),  grandson  of 
Esarhaddon  and  one  of  the  last  rulers  of  the  Assyrian  empire. 
And  in  addition  to  these  seven  palaces  at  Calah,  he  had  dis- 
covered and  partly  excavated  the  large  palace  of  Sennacherib 
(705-681  B.C.)  at  Nineveh.  Indeed,  he  had  accomplished  a 
glorious  work  —  and  a  munificent  gift  from  the  British  nation 
awaited  him  at  home.  "As  a  reward  for  my  various  ser- 
vices and  for  mv  discoveries,  I  was  appointed  an  unpaid 
attache  of  Her  Majesty's  Embassy  at  Constantinople."  ^ 

It  was  not  until  the  spring  of  1848  that  Lavard  received 
orders  to  proceed  to  his  new  post  in  Turkey.  The  half- 
year  immediately  preceding  his  departure  for  the  Bospho- 
rus  was  principally  devoted  to  the  preparation  of  the  narra- 
tive ^  of  his  first  expedition,  and  to  supervising  the  printing 
of  the  illustrations  of  the  monuments^  and  of  the  copies  of 
the  inscriptions  ^  recovered.  These  books,  published  during 
his  absence  from  England,  created  an  extraordinary  impres- 
sion throughout  Europe,  far  beyond  anything  he  could  ever 
have  dreamed  of.      It  was  in  particular  his  popular  narrative, 

king,  while  the  series  of  over  one  hundred  slabs,  representing  battles  and 
sieges,  and  arranged  as  it  ready  for  removal  (comp.  p.  io8  ),  formed  part  of 
the  decorations  of  the  palace  of  Tiglath-Pileser  III. 

^  Comp.  Austen  H.  Layard,  **  Early  Adventures  in  Persia,  Susiana,  and 
Babylonia,"  zd  ed.,  London,  1894,  p.  426  ('the  closing  words  of  the  whole 
book  ). 

^  Lavard,  "  Nineveh  and  its  Remains,  a  Narrative  of  a  First  Expedition 
to  Nineveh,"  London,   1848. 

^  Layard,  "  The  Monuments  of  Nineveh,  from  Drawings  Made  on  the 
Spot,"  series  i.,   100  plates,  London,   1849. 

■*  Lavard,  **  Inscriptions  in  the  Cuneiform  Character  from  Assyrian  Mon- 
uments," 98  plates,  London,  1851. 


Plan  of  Layard's  Excavations  at  Nimrud  (Calah) 


114  EXl'LORATIOXS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

written  almost  in  the  style  of  a  fascinating  novel,  enlivened 
by  the  numerous  stories  of  his  difficulties  and  adventures, 
and  interwoven  with  faithtul  accounts  of  the  habits  and  cus- 
toms of  many  different  tribes,  which  had  a  marvellous 
success  with  the  public.  Though  entirelv  unfamiliar  with 
the  contents  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  he  had  a  rare 
gift  of  combination,  and  he  understood  in  a  masterly  manner 
how  to  interpret  the  sculptures  on  the  walls  of  the  Assyr- 
ian palaces,  and  to  illustrate  the  Scriptures  and  profane 
writers  from  these  long-buried  sources.  The  pressure  of 
public  opinion  was  now  brought  to  bear  upon  the  British 
government.  Before  manv  months  had  passed,  Layard 
received  an  urgent  request  from  the  British  Museum  to  lead 
a  second  expedition  to  Nineveh,  and  he  readily  consented 
to  go. 

Second  Expedition,  i8^g—iS^i.  This  time,  Layard  was 
better  assisted  and  equipped  with  funds  than  previously. 
F.  Cooper,  a  competent  artist,  had  been  selected  to  draw 
those  bas-reliefs  and  sculptures  which  injury  and  decay  had 
rendered  unfit  for  removal,  and  Dr.  Sandwith,  a  physician, 
who  was  on  a  visit  to  the  East,  was  soon  induced  to  join 
his  party.  Accompanied  by  these  two  Englishmen  and  by 
Hormuzd  Rassam,  his  former  faithful  companion,  he  left 
Constantinople  on  the  28th  of  August,  1849,  by  a  British 
steamer  bound  for  the  Black  Sea.  Three  days  later  they 
disembarked  and  took  the  direct  land  route  to  Mosul  -via 
Erzerum  and  Lake  Wan.  On  the  first  of  October  they 
were  at  Oovunjuk  again.  Since  Layard's  return  to  Europe 
in  I  847,  little  had  been  done  at  these  ruins.  For  a  short 
while  Mr.  Ross,  an  English  merchant  of  Mosul,  had  con- 
ducted excavations  on  a  small  scale,  as  mentioned  above, 
and  after  his  departure  from  the  town.  Christian  Rassam, 
the  British  vice-consul,  had  placed  a  few  workmen  in  the 
abandoned  trenches  at  the  request  of  the  trustees  of  the 
British  Museum,  "  rather  to  retain  possession  of  the  spot. 


DURING  I'JTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      115 

and  to  prevent  interference  on  the  part  of  others,  than  to 
carry  on  extensive  operations."  By  the  middle  of  Octo- 
ber, Layard  had  finished  the  necessary  preparations  and 
resumed  active  work  at  the  mound  with  a  force  of  about 
one  hundred  men.  In  order  to  save  time  and  labor  he 
changed  the  method  of  excavating  formerly  employed.  In- 
stead of  carrying  away  all  the  rubbish  from  the  surface  down 
to  the  platform,  he  began  to  tunnel  along  the  walls,  sinking 
shafts  at  intervals  to  admit  light,  air,  and  the  descending 
workmen,  and  "  removing  only  as  much  earth  as  was  neces- 
sary to  show  the  sculptured  walls."  It  is  clear  that  under 
such  circumstances  the  examination  of  the  buried  halls  and 
chambers  was  even  less  thorough  than  it  had  been  previ- 
ously at  Nimrud,  as  their  centres  had  to  be  left  standing  to 
prevent  the  narrow  subterranean  passages  from  collapsing 
under  the  pressure  from  above.  Small  objects  of  art  were 
accordingly  found  very  rarely,  their  discovery  being  due 
more  to  a  fortunate  accident  than  to  a  methodical  search. 

As  soon  as  the  excavations  in  the  mounds  opposite 
Mosul  had  been  fairly  started,  Layard  and  Hormuzd 
Rassam  hurried  to  Nimrud,  where  operations  were  simulta- 
neously conducted  until  the  end  of  spring,  1850.  Work 
was  resumed  in  the  four  principal  sections  of  the  mound 
which  had  yielded  so  many  antiquities  during  the  first  expe- 
dition, but  trenches  were  now  also  opened  in  the  remaining 
parts  of  the  ruins.  It  was  particularly  the  high  conical 
mound  at  the  northwest  corner  and  the  adjacent  northern 
edge  of  the  large  plateau  which  received  greater  attention 
than  had  hitherto  been  possible.  One  morning,  shortly 
after  his  arrival,  while  ascending  the  mound,  Layard  found 
an  unexpected  visitor  in  his  trenches.  In  glancing  down- 
ward from  the  summit  of  the  ruins,  he  discovered  Rawlinson 
on.  the  floor  of  an  excavated  chamber,  "wrapped  in  his 
travelling  cloak,  deep  in  sleep,  and  wearied  bv  a  long  and 
harassing  night's   ride."      After    an    absence  of  more  than 


116  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

twenty-two  years  from  England,  this  gallant  officer  was  on 
his  way  home.  Accompanied  by  a  single  servant,  he  had 
made  the  trip  from  Baghdad  to  Mosul,  generally  counted 
eight  to  twelve  days,  in  less  than  seventy-two  hours,  a  feat 
reminding  us  vividly  of  his  famous  ride  between  Poonah 
and  Panwell,^  when  still  a  young  and  ambitious  lieutenant 
in  India  (1832).  Unfortunately,  in  the  present  case,  Raw- 
linson's  extraordinary  exertion,  at  a  time  when  his  health 
had  suffered  considerably  from  hard  mental  work  and  the 
effect  of  a  semi-tropical  climate,  proved  too  much  for  his 
weakened  constitution.  For  several  days  he  was  seriously 
ill  at  Mosul,  unable  to  do  more  than  to  pay  a  hasty  visit  to 
Lavard's  excavations  before  his  departure. 

The  work  at  Oovunjuk  and  Nimriad  proceeded  regularly 
under  the  supervision  of  efficient  native  overseers.  No 
longer  embarrassed  by  those  difficulties  and  molestations 
from  the  governor  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  which 
had  taxed  their  patience  and  energy  so  often  during  the  pre- 
vious campaign,  Layard  and  Rassam  spent  their  time  gen- 
erally between  the  two  places,  unless  absent  on  one  of  their 
numerous  exploration  tours  to  the  Sinjar  and  the  banks  of 
the  Khabur,  to  Khorsabad  and  Bavian,  to  the  rock  sculp- 
tures of  Gunduk,  and  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  ot  Wan,  to 
the  ruins  of  Babylon  and  Nuffar,  or  to  any  of  the  different 
Assyrian  sites  in  their  immediate  neighborhood.  Follow- 
ing the  example  of  Layard,  who  wisely  abstained  from 
relating,  day  by  day,  the  further  progress  of  his  labors,  we 
will  now  sketch  briefly  the  principal  discoveries  which  char- 
acterized the  English  operations  in  the  two  great  ruins  of 
Nineveh  and  Calah  during  the  years  1849-51. 

The  ruins  of  Oovunjuk  had  practically  been  only  scratched 
by  Botta  and  Layard  in  their  nervous  attempts  at  disclos- 
ing sculptured  remains  in  some  part  of  the  large  mound. 
It  was   now  decided  to  submit   the  whole  complex   to  an 

^  Distance,  72  miles  ;  time  occupied,  3  hours,  7  minutes. 


DURING  19TI1   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      117 

examination  by  experimental  shafts  and  trial  trenches,  and 
to  make  the  excavation  of  the  southwest  palace  of  Qoyunjuk 
the  chief  object  of  the  present  campaign.  Like  the  south- 
west edifice  at  Nimrud,  the  latter  had  been  destroyed  by 
fire,  when  the  Median  armies,  murdering  and  pillaging, 
entered  the  gates  of  Nineveh  (606  b.  c).  Consequentlv, 
hundreds  of  the  most  elaborate  sculptures  were  found 
cracked  and  broken,  or  almost  entirely  reduced  to  lime. 
Yet  many  had  more  or  less  escaped  the  results  of  the  great 
conflagration,  thus  allowing  the  explorer  to  determine  the 
spirited  scenes  which  once  adorned  the  walls  of  the  principal 
chambers.  Battles  and  victories,  sieges  and  conquests,  hunt- 
ing scenes  and  sacrifices  to  the  gods,  were  again  the  leading 
representations.  But  in  the  general  conception  of  the  sub- 
ject, in  the  treatment  of  the  costumes  worn  by  the  Assyrian 


•TMi^fe 

-»«,- 

'       •"-  "       -"la.^JIBMBLBiaWKaM  ■ 

1 

J 

P 

1 

m 

IK.." 

The  Ruins  of  Nineveh,  from  the  North 

warriors,  as  well  as  by  the  subdued  nations,  in  the  character 
of  the  ornaments,  in  the  arrangement  of  the  inscriptions, 
and  in  many  other  important  details,  there  is  a  marked  dif- 
ference between  the  bas-reliefs  in  the  palace  of  Sennacherib 
and  those  of  the  older  palaces  at  Nimrud.  There  the  sculp- 
tured slabs  showed  large  figures  or  simple  groups,  divided 
into  two  friezes,  an  upper  and  a  lower  one,  by  intervening 


118  EATLOBAriOXS    IX   BIBLE  LANDS 

inscriptions,  "  the  subject  being  frequently  confined  to  one 
tablet,  and  arranged  with  some  attempt  at  composition,  so 
as  to  form  a  separate  picture."  Here  the  four  walls  of  a 
chamber  were  generally  adorned  "  by  one  series  of  sculp- 
tures, representing  a  consecutive  history,  uninterrupted  by 
inscriptions,  or  by  the  divisions  in  the  alabaster  panelling." 
Short  epigraphs  or  labels,  as  a  rule  placed  on  the  upper  part 
of  the  stones,  give  the  names  of  the  conquered  country,  city, 
and  even  of  the  principal  prisoners  and  historical  events 
pictured  below.  Hundreds  of  figures  cover  the  face  of  the 
slabs  from  top  to  bottom.  We  become  acquainted  with 
the  pecuHarities,  in  type  and  dress,  of  foreign  nations,  and 
the  characteristic  features  and  products  of  their  lands  ;  we  are 
introduced  into  the  very  life  and  occupations  of  the  persons 
represented.  The  sculptor  shows  us  the  Babylonian  swamps 
with  their  jungles  of  tall  reeds,  frequented  by  wild  boars,  and 
barbarous  tribes  skimming  overthe  waters  in  their  light  boats 
of  wicker-work,  exactly  as  they  are  used  to-day  by  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  same  marshes  ;  or  he  takes  us  into  the  high 
mountains  of  Kurdistan,  covered  with  trees  and  crowned  with 
castles,  endeavoring  even  to  convey  the  idea  of  a  valley  by 
reversing  the  trees  and  mountains  on  one  side  of  the  stream, 
which  is  filled  with  fishes  and  crabs  and  turtles.  He  indi- 
cates the  different  headgear  worn  by  female  musicians,  or 
by  captive  women  carried  with  their  husbands  and  children 
to  Nineveh.  Some  wear  their  hair  in  long  ringlets,  some 
platted  or  braided,  some  confined  in  a  net;  others  are  char- 
acterized by  hoods  fitting  close  over  their  heads,  others  by 
a  kind  of  turban  ;  Elamite  ladies  have  their  hair  in  curls 
falling  on  their  shoulders,  and  bound  above  the  temples  by 
a  band  or  fillet,  while  those  from  Syria  wear  a  high  conical 
headdress,  similar  to  that  which  is  frequently  found  to-day 
in  those  regions.  It  is  impossible  to  enter  into  all  the 
details  so  faithfully  represented.  Without  the  knowledge 
of  a   single  cuneiform    character,  w'e   learned   the   principal 


DURING  I'JTH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      119 

events  of  Sennacherib's  government,  and  from  a  mere 
study  of  those  sculptured  walls  we  got  familiar  with  the 
customs  and  habits  of  the  ancient  Assyrians,  at  the  same 
time  obtaining  a  first  clear  glance  of  the  whole  civilization 
of  Western  Asia. 

How  much  the  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament 
books  profited  from  Layard's  epoch-making  discoveries,  we 
can  scarcely  realize  fully  after  we  have  been  under  the  power- 
ful influence  which  went  forth  from  the  resurrected  palaces 
of  Ooyunjuk  since  the  earliest  davs  of  our  childhood. 
Being  written  in  a  language  closely  akin  to  Assyrian,  and 
compiled  by  men  brought  up  in  the  same  atmosphere  and 
surroundings,  they  frequently  describe  the  verv  institutions, 
customs,  and  deeds  so  vividly  portrayed  on  the  alabaster 
slabs  of  Nineveh.  But  it  was  not  only  through  analogy 
and  comparison  that  so  many  obscure  words  and  passages 
in  the  Scriptures  received  fresh  light  and  often  an  entirely 
new  meaning,  —  sometimes  the  very  same  persons  and  events 
mentioned  in  the  historical  and  prophetical  books  of  the 
Bible  were  depicted  on  those  monuments  or  recorded  in  their 
accompanying  inscriptions.  We  refer  only  to  the  fine  series 
of  thirteen  slabs  adorning  the  walls  of  a  room  nearly  in  the 
centre  of  the  great  southwest  wing  of  Sennacherib's  palace. 
Seated  upon  his  throne  in  the  hilly  districts  of  Southern 
Palestine,  and  surrounded  by  his  formidable  army,  is  the 
Assyrian  king,  attired  in  his  richly  embroidered  robes.  In 
the  distance  severe  fighting  is  still  going  on,  archers  and 
slingers  and  spearmen  attack  a  fortified  citv,  defended  by 
the  besieged  with  great  determination.  But  part  of  the 
place  has  been  taken.  Beneath  its  walls  are  seen  Assvrian 
warriors  Impaling  their  prisoners  or  flaying  them  alive,  while 
from  the  gateway  of  a  tower  issues  a  long  procession  of 
captives,  camels  and  carts  laden  with  women  and  children 
and  spoil,  advancing  towards  the  monarch.  Above  the 
head  of  the  king  we  read  the  Inscription :    "  Sennacherib, 

10 


120  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

king  of  the  Universe,  king  of  Assyria,  sat  upon   a  throne 
and  reviewed  the  spoil  of  the  city  of  Lachish."  ^ 

The  discovery  of  so  many  priceless  sculptures  in  more 
than  seventy  rooms,  halls,  and  galleries  of  the  palace  of  one 
of  the  greatest  monarchs  of  the  ancient  East  forms  a  most 
striking  result  of  Layard's  second  expedition  to  Nineveh. 
Indeed  these  bas-reliefs  alone  would  have  sufficed  to  make 
his  name  immortal,  and  to  place  his  work  in  the  trenches  of 
Qoyunjuk  far  above  the  average  archaeological  explorations 
in  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  mounds.  And  yet  they  repre- 
sent only  half  of  what  was  actually  obtained.  No  less 
remarkable,  and  in  many  respects  of  even  greater  impor- 
tance for  the  founding  and  developing  of  the  young 
Assvriological  science,  was  another  discovery,  which  at  first 
may  have  seemed  rather  insignificant  in  the  light  of  those 
magnificent  sculptures.  We  know  from  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions  of  Sennacherib's  grandson,  Ashurbanapal,  that 
the  southwest  palace  of  Nineveh,  which  thousands  of  cap- 
tives from  all  the  conquered  nations  of  Western  Asia,  under 
the  rod  of  their  merciless  taskmasters,  had  erected  on  the 
gigantic  platform  at  the  confluence  of  the  Tigris  and  the 
Khosar,  was  largely  repaired  and  for  some  time  occupied  by 
this  last  great  ruler  of  a  great  empire.  So  far  as  Layard's 
excavations,  however,  went  to  show,  there  remained  very 
few  complete  sculptures  of  this  monarch  '-^  which  escaped  the 
general  destruction,  while  many  fragments  of  inscribed  slabs 
testified  to  his  extensive  work  at  that  building.     But  though 

^  Comp.  2  Kings  i8  :  13,  sc^.,  19:8,  and  the  parallel  passages.  Is.  36  :  i, 
se^.,  27  :  8. 

^  Prominent  among  them  are  six  fossiliferous  limestone  slabs  adorned  with 
scenes  of  his  Elamitic  war.  These  slabs,  however,  belonged  originally  to 
the  older  palace,  as  the  name  and  titles  of  Sennacherib  on  the  back  of  each 
bas-relief  indicate.  Ashurbanapal  therefore  adopted  the  same  method  in  re- 
pairing his  grandfather's  building  as  was  followed  by  his  father,  Esarhaddon, 
with  regard  to  his  own  palace  at  Calah,  almost  entirely  constructed  of  older 
material.      Comp.  Layard,  "  Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  p.  459. 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      121 

the  bas-reliefs  which  once  announced  his  battles  and  victories 
to  the  people  have  long  ago  crumbled  away,  there  were 
found  in  another  section  of  the  same  southern  wing  of  Sen- 
nacherib's palace  those  precious  relics  which  will  hand  down 
from  generation  to  generation  the  name  of  Ashurbanapal  as 
that  of  a  great  patron  of  art  and  literature,  and  as  the  power- 
ful monarch  "  instructed  in  the  wisdom  of  the  god  Nebo." 

One  day  Layard  came  upon  two  small  chambers,  opening 
into  each  other,  and  once  panelled  with  sculptured  slabs,  most 
of  which  had  been  destroyed.  But  in  removing  the  earth  and 
rubbish  from  their  interior  he  recognized  that  "to  the  height 
of  a  foot  or  more  from  the  floor  they  were  entirely  filled 
with  cuneiform  tablets  of  baked  clay,  some  entire,  but  the 
greater  part  broken  into  many  fragments."  He  had  discov- 
ered part  of  the  famous  royal  library  of  Nineveh  founded 
and  maintained  by  the  kings  of  the  last  Assyrian  empire 
(about  720-620  B.  c),  the  other  half  being  later  unearthed 
by  Rassam  in  Ashurbanapal's  north  palace  at  Qoyunjuk.  It 
was  especially  the  last-mentioned  king  (668—626  b.  c.)  who 
"  enlarged  and  enriched  the  collection  of  tablets  which  his 
predecessors  had  brought  together,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
constitute  them  into  a  veritable  library,  by  the  addition  of 
hundreds,  even  thousands  of  documents  .  .  .  dealing  with 
every  branch  of  learning  and  science  known  to  the  wise  men 
of  his  day."  ^  These  tablets,  when  complete,  varying  in 
length  from  one  inch  to  fifteen  inches,  were  made  of  the 

^  Comp.  Bezold,  "  Catalogue  of  the  Cuneiform  Tablets  in  the  Kouyun- 
jik  Collection  of  the  British  Museum,"  vol.  v.  (London,  1899),  p.  xiii. 
The  statement  made  by  Bezold  on  p.  xiv.  of  this  volume,  "  that  in  1849 
and  1850  Layard  discovered  the  palace  of  Ashurbanapal,"  though  found  in 
other  Assyriological  publications,  is  as  erroneous  as  another  view  found,  e.  g. , 
in  Delitzsch's  writings  (comp.  Mtirdter^ s  Ges chick te  Babyloniens  u?id  Assy- 
riens,  Calw  and  Stuttgart,  2nd  ed.  1891,  p.  5,  or  Ex  Oriente  Lux,  Leipzig, 
1898,  p.  6)  that  it  was  only  Rassam  who  discovered  Ashurbanapal's  library. 
This  library  was  stored  in  two  palaces  and  discovered  by  both  Layard  (south- 
west palace)  and  Rassam  (north  palace). 


122  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

finest  clav,  and  inscribed  with  the  most  minute  but  singu- 
larly sharp  and  well  defined  cuneiform  writing.  Their  con- 
tents are  as  varied  and  different  as  the  forms  and  sizes  of 
the  fragments  themselves.  There  are  historical  records  and 
chronological  lists  which  make  us  acquainted  with  the  chief 
events  and  the  number  of  years  of  the  governments  of  many 
Assyrian  kings  ;  there  are  astronomical  reports  and  obser- 
vations, mathematical  calculations,  tables  of  measures  of 
length  and  capacitv,  which  reveal  to  us  a  branch  of  science 
in  which  the  Babvlonians  and  Assyrians  excelled  all  other 
nations  of  the  ancient  world  ;  there  are  hundreds  of  hymns 
and  psalms,  prayers  and  oracles,  mythological  texts  and 
incantations,  in  their  poetical  expression  and  depth  of  reli- 
gious feeling  often  not  inferior  to  the  best  Hebrew  poetry  ; 
there  are  letters  and  addresses  from  kings  and  ministers, 
ofiicers,  and  private  persons,  which  deal  with  military  expe- 
ditions, the  revolts  of  subdued  enemies,  the  payment  of 
tribute,  the  administration  of  provinces,  the  repairing  of 
buildings,  the  digging  of  canals,  the  purchase  of  horses,  the 
complaints  of  unjust  treatment  or  taxation,  the  transport  of 
winged  bulls,  the  calling  in  of  a  physician  to  prescribe  for  a 
lady  of  the  court,  and  manv  other  interesting  details.  By 
far  the  larger  mass  of  the  tablets  discovered  treat  of 
astrology,  and  of  the  subjects  of  medicine  and  religious 
observations  so  closelv  connected  with  this  pseudo-science. 
Not  the  least  important  tablets  in  the  whole  collection 
are  those  lists  of  cuneiform  signs  and  syllabaries,  lists 
of  months,  plants,  stones,  animals,  temples,  gods,  cities, 
mountains  and  countries,  etc.,  lists  of  synonyms,  verbal 
forms,  and  other  grammatical  exercises,  and  a  large  number 
of  bilingual  texts  which  formed  and  still  form  the  chief 
source  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  Assyrian  and  Sumerian 
grammars  and  lexicons.  In  view  of  such  important  and 
startling  discoveries,  the  manv  smaller  results  which  crowned 
Layard's  archaeological  researches  at  Nineveh —  I  reteronly 


DURING   19™  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      123 

to  his  large  collection  of  fine  seals  and  seal-impressions,'  to 
his  determination  of  the  northwest  city  gate,  and  to  his 
accidental  discovery  of  chambers  of  Esarhaddon's  palace  at 
the  southern  mound  of  Nebi-Yianus"  —  may  well  be  passed 
over. 

The  excavations  at  Nimrud,  started  at  the  high  conical 
mound  in  the  northwest  corner,  were  also  accompanied  by 
results  of  considerable  interest  and  value.  By  means  of 
tunnels  the  workmen  had  soon  reached  a  part  of  solid 
masonry,  forming  the  substructure  for  the  upper  part  of  a 
massive  building.  From  a  comparison  of  this  ruin  with  the 
similar  high-towering  mounds  at  Khorsabad,  El-Birs,  and 
other  Babylonian  sites,  it  is  evident  that  Layard  had  found 
the  remains  of  the  ziggurrat  or  stage-tower  of  Calah,  at  first 
wrongly  regarded  by  him  and  Rawlinson  as  "  the  tomb  of 
Sardanapalus."  Immediately  adjoining  this  tower  were  two 
small  temples  erected  by  Ashurnasirapal  II.,  and  separated 
from  each  other  by  a  staircase  or  inclined  passage  leading 
up  to  the  platform  from  the  north.  They  were  built  of  sun- 
dried  brick  coated  with  plaster,  and  besides  clay  images 
and  fragments  of  other  idols  contained  a  number  of  valuable 
sculptures,  bas-reliefs,  and  inscribed  slabs,  which  had  adorned 
their  principal  entrances.  One  of  the  recesses  at  the  end  of  a 
chamber  was  paved  with  one  enormous  limestone  slab  meas- 
uring no  less  than  ii  feet  by  16  feet  7  inches  by  i  foot  i  inch, 
and  completely  covered  with  cuneiform  inscriptions  record- 
ing the  wars  and  campaigns  of  the  ruler,  and  full  of  geo- 
graphical information,  but  also  of  disgusting  details  of  the 
cruel  punishments  inflicted  upon  the  unfortunate  conquered 
nations.     A  similar  great  monolith  was  found  in  the  second 

^  The  well-known  Hittite,  Egyptian,  and  Aramean  seal-impressions  on 
clay  being  among  them.      Comp.  Layard,  /.  c,  pp.   i  53-161. 

^  Where  he  had  oiFered  to  a  Moslem  property  owner  to  dig  underground 
summer  apartments  for  him,  through  one  of  his  agents,  on  condition  that  he 
should  have  all  the  antiquities  discovered  during  the  excavations. 


124  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

temple,  and  in  the  earth  above  it  the  entire  statue  of  the 
monarch,  with  the  following  self-glorifying  inscription,  run- 
ning across  his  breast :  "  Ashurnasirapal,  the  great  king,  the 
powerful  king,  king  of  the  Universe,  king  of  Assyria,  son 
of  Tuklat-Ninib,  the  great  king,  the  powerful  king,  king  of 
the  Universe,  king  of  Assyria,  son  of  Adadnirari,  the  great 
king,  the  powerful  king,  king  of  the  Universe,  king  of 
Assyria,  the  conqueror  from  beyond  the  Tigris  to  the 
Lebanon  and  the  Great  Sea  [Mediterranean]  —  all  the 
countries  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the  setting  thereof 
he  subdued  under  his  feet," 

Of  no  less  importance,  though  of  a  different  character, 
was  a  discoverv  in  the  northwest  palace.  Near  the  west 
edge  of  the  mound  the  workmen  came  accidentally  upon  a 
chamber  built  by  Ashurnasirapal,  which  probably  served  as  a 
storeroom.  In  one  corner  was  a  well  nearly  sixty  feet  deep, 
while  in  other  parts  of  the  room  there  were  found  twelve 
huge  copper  vessels  partly  filled  with  smaller  objects.  Beneath 
and  behind  these  caldrons  were  heaped  without  order  large 
masses  of  copper  and  bronze  vessels,  arms  (shields,  swords, 
daggers,  heads  of  spears  and  arrows),  iron  implements,  such 
as  picks,  saws,  hammers,  etc,  glass  bowls,  ivory  relics,  and 
several  entire  elephants'  tusks.  In  another  corner  of  this 
interesting  chamber  had  stood  the  royal  throne,  carved  in 
wood  and  cased  with  elaborate  bronze  ornaments.  It  was 
badlv  decayed,  but  enough  remained  to  ascertain  that  it 
resembled  in  shape  the  chairs  of  state  represented  on  the 
slabs  of  Khorsabad  and  Oovunjuk,  and  particularly  that  on 
which  Sennacherib  is  seated  while  reviewing  the  captives 
and  spoil  of  the  citv  of  Lachish.  About  one  hundred  and 
fifty  bronze  vessels  of  different  sizes  and  shapes,  and  eighty 
small  bells  in  the  same  metal,  could  be  sent  to  the  British 
Museum.  As  many  of  the  former  were  in  a  fine  state  of 
preservation  and  remarkable  for  the  beauty  of  their  design, 
being  ornamented  with  the  embossed  or  incised  figures  of 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      125 

men,  animals,  trees,  and  flowers,  they  constitute  a  most 
valuable  collection  of  representative  specimens  of  ancient 
metallurgy.  A  great  many  of  the  objects  discovered  are 
doubtless  of  Assyrian  origin  ;  others  may  have  formed  part 


Bronze  Plate  from  Nimrud  (Calah) 

of  the  spoil  of  some  conquered  nation,  or  perhaps  they  were 
made  by  foreign  artists  brought  captive  to  the  banks  of  the 
Tigris. 

Omitting  an  enumeration  of  the  numerous  fragments  of 
interesting  sculptures  and  of  other  minor  antiquities  ^  exca- 
vated at  Nimriad  during  the  second  expedition,  we  mention 
only  the    fact   that  in   the  southeast  corner  of  the  mound 

^  E.  g.,a.  weight  in  the  shape  of  a  duck  discovered  in  the  northwest  palace, 
and  bearing  the  inscription:  "30  standard  mana,  palace  ot  Erba-Marduk, 
king  of  Babylon  "  — a  king  otherwise  unknown. 


126  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Layard  disclosed  the  remains  of  an  earlier  building^  and  a 
solitary  brick  arch  beneath  the  palace  or  temple  constructed 
by  Ashuretililani,  while  in  the  ramparts  of  earth  marking 
the  walls  of  Calah,  he  traced  fifty-eight  towers  to  the  north, 
and  about  fifty  to  the  east,  at  the  same  time  establishing  the 
existence  of  a  number  of  approaches  or  stairways  on  the 
four  different  sides  of  the  enclosed  platform. 

In  addition  to  his  successful  excavations  at  Nineveh  and 
Calah,  and  to  his  less  fortunate  operations  at  Babylon  and 
Nuffar,  about  which  we  shall  have  to  say  a  few  words  later, 
Layard,  either  himself  or  through  one  of  his  native  agents, 
cut  trial  trenches  into  various  other  mounds,  extending  his 
researches  even  as  far  west  as  the  Khabur.  Most  of  these 
examinations  were  carried  on  too  hastily  and  without  method, 
and  therefore  have  little  value,  while  others,  like  those  car- 
ried on  in  the  mounds  of  Bahshiqa,  Karamles,  Lak,  She- 
mamyk,  Sherif  Khan,  Abu  Marya,  and  'Arban,  yielded 
inscribed  bricks  or  slabs  from  which  the  Assyrian  origin  of 
these  ruins  could  be  established.  At  Sherif  Khan,  on  the 
Tigris,  three  miles  to  the  north  of  Qoyunjuk,  he  discovered 
even  remains  of  two  Assyrian  temples  and  inscribed  lime- 
stone slabs  from  a  palace  which  Esarhaddon  had  erected  for 
his  son,  Ashurbanapal,  at  Tarbisu  ;  at  Qal'at  Shirgat  he 
gathered  fragments  of  two  large  octagonal  terra-cotta  prisms 
of  Tiglath-Pileser  I.  (about  iioo  b.  c);  and  at  'Arban,  on 
the  Biblical  Habor,  he  conducted  personal  excavations  for 
three  weeks,  bringing  to  light  two  pairs  of  winged  bulls, 
a  large  lion  with  extended  jaws,  similar  to  those  found  in 
one  of  the  small  temples  at  Nimrud,  and  pieces  of  carved 
stone  and  painted  brick  —  all  belonging  to  the  "palace"  of 
a  man  otherwise  unknown,  who,  to  judge  from  his  style  of 
art,  must  have  lived  about  the  time  of  Ashurnasirapal  II. 

^  Constructed  by  Shalmaneser  II.,  as  was  proved  by  George  Smith  more 
than  twenty  years  later.  Comp.  his  "Assyrian  Discoveries,"  3d  ed.,  New 
York,   1876,  pp.  76-79. 


DURING   19T/{  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA       127 

During  this  second  expedition  Layard  and  the  other 
members  of  his  staff  suffered  from  fever  and  ague  consider- 
ably more  than  previously.  Before  the  first  summer  had 
fairly  commenced,  both  Dr.  Sandwith  and  Mr.  Cooper  were 
seriously  ill  and  had  to  return  to  Europe.  Another  artist 
was  sent  by  the  British  Musem,  but  a  few  months  after 
his  arrival  he  was  drowned  in  the  Gonial  at  the  foot  of  Sen- 
nacherib's sculptures  at  Bavian  (July,  1851).  Layard  and 
Rassam  alone  braved  and  withstood  the  inhospitable  cli- 
mate until  their  funds  were  exhausted.  More  than  one 
hundred  and  twenty  large  cases  of  sculptures,  tablets,  and 
other  antiquities  had  been  sent  down  to  Baghdad,  awaiting 
examination  by  Rawlinson  previous  to  their  shipment  to 
England.  Finally,  on  April  28,  1851,  the  two  explorers 
themselves  turned  from  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  rich  in  new 
honors  and  yet  "  with  a  heavy  heart."  Two  years  later 
Layard  submitted  the  results  of  his  latest  researches  to 
the  public,^  and  for  the  first  time  was  able  to  interweave  the 
fascinating  story  of  his  work  and  wanderings  with  numerous 
quotations  from  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  so  admirably 
interpreted  by  Rawlinson  and  by  Hincks.  His  nomadic 
days  had  now  come  to  an  end.  He  did  not  visit  again  the 
mounds  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon.  The  enthusiastic  recep- 
tion of  his  books  all  over  Europe,  and  the  extraordinary 
services  which  he  had  rendered  to  the  cause  of  science  and 
art  in  his  own  country,  secured  for  him  at  last  that  recog- 
nition from  his  government  to  which  he  was  entitled.  But 
though  no  longer  active  in  the  field  of  Assyrian  explora- 
tion, where  he  occupies  the  foremost  position,  he  never  lost 
his  interest  in  the  continuation  of  this  work  by  others,  and 
twenty-four  years  later  (1877),  ^^  Her  Majesty's  ambassa- 
dor at  Constantinople,  he  supported  Rassam  with  the  same 

^  Comp.  Layard,  "Discoveries  in  the  Ruins  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon," 
London,  1853  ?  ^"<^  ^^^  same  author's  "The  Monuments  of  Nineveh," 
series  ii.,  71  plates,  London,   1853. 


128  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

sympathy  and  loyalty  which  once,  when  an  unknown  ad- 
venturer, he  himself  had  experienced  there  at  the  hand  of 
his  predecessor  and  patron. 

During  the  two  years  which  Rawlinson  spent  in  England 
(1850-51)  for  the  restoration  of  his  health  and  to  superin- 
tend the  publication  of  his  famous  second  memoir  "  On 
the  Babylonian  Translation  of  the  Great  Persian  Inscription 
at  Behistun,"  through  which  he  announced  to  the  world  that 
the  deciphering  of  the  Babylono-Assvrian  cuneiform  writ- 
ing was  an  accomplished  fact,  he  entered  into  closer  relations 
with  the  British  Museum.  The  trustees  of  this  large  store- 
house of  ancient  art-treasures  were  anxious  to  resume  their 
researches  in  the  ruins  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates,  which  hitherto  had  been  conducted  with  such 
marvellous  success  by  Layard.  Who  was  better  qualified 
to  carry  out  their  plans  and  to  take  charge  of  the  proposed 
excavations  than  Rawlinson,  with  his  unique  knowledge 
of  the  cuneiform  languages,  his  rare  experience  as  a  soldier 
and  traveller,  and  his  remarkable  influence  in  the  East  as 
the  political  representative  of  a  great  nation  at  Baghdad  ! 
And  he  was  at  once  ready  to  add  the  labors  of  an  explorer 
and  excavator  to  those  of  a  diplomat  and  decipherer.  Be- 
fore he  departed  from  England,  he  was  entrusted  with  the 
supervision  of  all  the  excavations  which  might  be  carried 
on  bv  the  British  Museum  in  Assyria,  Babylonia,  and  Susi- 
ana,  and  was  authorized  to  employ  such  agents  as  he 
thought  fit  in  excavating  and  transporting  the  best-pre- 
served antiquities  to  the  national  collections  in  London.^ 
Well  provided  with  the  necessary  funds  furnished  by  the 
government  and  private  individuals,  he  entered  upon  his 
second  official  residence  in  Baghdad  in  the  fall  of  1851. 
But  intelligent  men  who  could  be  relied  upon,  and  at  the 
same  time  were  able  to  manage  the  work  properly  in   the 

^  Comp.  George  Rawlinson,  "  A  Memoir  of  Major-General  Sir  Henry 
Cresvvicke  Rawlinson,"  London,   1898,  pp.   172,  se^^. 


DURING   lOTB   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      129 

trenches,  far  away  from  the  place  to  which  he  was  generally 
bound  by  his  principal  duties,  were  very  rare  in  those 
regions.  He  was  about  to  send  Loftus,  of  the  Turco-Per- 
sian  Boundary  Commission,  who  had  excavated  for  him  at 
the  large  mound  of  Susa,  to  the  Assyrian  ruins,  when  the 
trustees  of  the  British  Museum  came  unexpectedly  to  his 
assistance.  The  manifest  interest  among  the  religious  and 
scientific  circles  of  England  in  the  historical  and  literary 
results  of  Layard's  discoveries,  daily  increased  by  Rawlin- 
son's  own  letters  and  instructive  communications  on  the 
contents  of  the  unearthed  cuneiform  inscriptions,  influenced 
that  administrative  body  to  despatch  a  third  artist  ^  to  the 
scene  of  the  old  excavations,  soon  followed  by  Hormuzd 
Rassam,  as  chief  practical  excavator.  Their  choice  could  not 
have  fallen  upon  a  better  man.  In  the  school  of  Layard 
excellently  trained  and  prepared  for  his  task,  as  a  native  of 
Mosul  entirely  familiar  with  the  language  and  character  of 
the  Arabs,  through  his  previous  connections  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  undertaking,  and  after  a  long  contact  with 
Western  civilization  thoroughly  impregnated  with  the  Eng- 
lish spirit  of  energy,  he  was  an  ideal  explorer,  the  very 
man  whom  Rawlinson,  the  scientific  leader  and  real  soul  of 
all  these  explorations,  needed  to  carry  the  work  in  the  Assy- 
rian ruins  to  a  successful  conclusion.  But  Rassam's  posi- 
tion was  not  very  easy.  For  several  years  his  predecessor, 
profiting  by  every  hint  which  the  appearance  of  the  ground 
afforded,  had  tunnelled  through  the  most  promising  spots 
of  the  Assyrian  mounds,  and  what  remained  unexplored 
of  Qoyunjuk  had  been  transferred  by  Rawlinson  to  Victor 
Place,  in  generous  response  to  the  latter's  request.  Yet 
Rassam  was  shrewd  and  determined,  and  knew  how  to  over- 
come difficulties. 

^  By  the  name  of  Hodder,  to  succeed  the  lamented  Mr.  Bell,  who  was 
drowned  in  the  Gomal.  Hodder  remained  in  Mesopotamia  until  the  begin- 
ning of  1854,  when  he  fell  seriously  ill,  and  was  supplanted  by  William 
Boutcher. 


130  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Rassanis  Excavations,  1852-^4.  In  the  fall  of  i  852  oper- 
ations were  commenced  under  his  superintendence,  and  con- 
tinued till  the  beginning  of  April,  i  854.  Following  Layard's 
example,  he  placed  his  workmen  at  as  many  different  sites 
as  possible,  anxious  also  to  prevent  his  French  rival  from 
encroaching  any  further  upon  what  he  regarded  as  the  Brit- 
ish sphere  of  influence.  But  more  than  a  year  elapsed 
without  any  of  those  startling  discoveries  to  which  the 
English  nation  had  got  accustomed  through  Layard's  phe- 
nomenal success.  At  Qal'at  Shirgat,  where  he  excavated 
twice  in  the  course  of  1853,  he  obtained  two  terra-cotta 
prisms,  inscribed  with  the  annals  of  Tiglath-Pileser  I. 
They  were  only  duplicates  of  others  unearthed  by  his  prede- 
cessor two  years  before  ;  ^  but,  unlike  those,  they  were  com- 
plete and  in  a  fine  state  of  preservation,  found  buried  in 
solid  masonry,  about  thirty  feet  apart,  at  two  of  the  corners 
of  an  almost  perfect  square,  which  originally  formed  part  of 
the  large  temple  of  the  city  of  Ashur.  Soon  afterwards  their 
long  text  of  811  lines  played  a  certain  role  in  the  history 
of  Assyriology,  being  selected  by  the  council  of  the  Royal 
Asiatic  Society  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  for  a  public 
test  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  deciphering  of  the  Assyrian 
cuneiform  writing." 

At  the  southeast  corner  of  Nimrijd,  Rassam  discovered 
Ezida,  the  temple  of  Nebo,  and  six  large  statues  of  the 
god,  two  of  which  had  been  set  up  by  a  governor  of  Calah 
"  for  the  life  of  Adadnirari  [HI.],  king  of  Assyria,  his  lord, 
and  for  the    life   of  Sammuramat    [generally   but   wrongly 

^  Comp.  p.  1 26.  The  real  facts  concerning  the  discovery  of  these  im- 
portant prisms  as  set  forth  above  are  generally  misrepresented,  their  discovery 
being  ascribed  either  to  Layard  or  Rassam. 

^  The  inscription  was  sent  to  four  prominent  Assyrian  scholars,  Rawlin- 
son,  Hincks,  Oppert,  and  Talbot,  at  the  latter' s  suggestion,  for  independent 
translations,  which  in  all  essential  points  agreed,  and  were  published  in  the 
journal  of  that  society,  vol.  xviii.,  pp.   150-219,  London,  1857. 


DURING  19TII   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND   BABYLONIA       131 

identified  with  Semiramis],  lady  of  the  palace,  his  mis- 
tress." In  another  room  of  the  same  building  he  came 
upon  the  well-preserved  stele  of  Samsi-Adad  IV.  (825— 
8  12  B.  c),  father  of  the  former  and  son  of  Shalmaneser  II.  ;  ^ 
while  among  heaps  upon  heaps  of  broken  sculptures  in  the 
so-called  central  palace  he  unearthed  fragments  of  an  in- 
scribed black  obelisk  of  Ashurnasirapal  II.,  which  when 
complete  must  have  exceeded  any  other  "Assyrian  obelisk 
so  far  discovered  in  size.  But  his  principal  work  was  car- 
ried on  at  Qoyunjuk.  Shaft  after  shaft  was  sunk  in  the 
ground  to  find  traces  of  a  new  palace  —  the  one  desideratum 
above  others  in  those  early  days  of  exploration.  As  Victor 
Place  never  excavated  in  the  northern  half  of  the  mound, 
so  liberally  allotted  to  him  by  Rawlinson,"  Rassam  profited 
by  his  absence,  and  placed  some  of  his  Arabs  very  close  to 
the  line  of  demarcation  drawn  by  his  chief,  in  order  to  ob- 
tain some  clue  as  to  the  probable  contents  of  that  forbidden 
section.  But  his  endeavors  did  not  prove  very  successful. 
Meanwhile  he  had  also  opened  trenches  in  the  English 
southern  half  of  the  mound,  which  yielded  a  white  obelisk 
nearly  ten  feet  high,  covered  with  bas-reliefs,  and  an  in- 
scription of  Ashurnasirapal  II.,  the  upper  half  of  a  similar 
monument,  and  the  torso  of  a  female  statue  from  the  palace 
of  Ashurbelkala,  son  of  Tiglath-Pileser  I. 

Valuable  as  all  these  and  other  recovered  antiquities  were 
in  themselves,  they  shrank  almost  into  insignificance  when 
compared  with  the  character  and  mass  of  Layard's  accumu- 
lated treasures.      Rassam  felt  this  very  keenly,  and  was  dis- 

^  That  even  Shalmaneser  II.  himself  built  at  the  temple  of  Nebo  was  shown 
later  by  George  Smith,  *'  Assyrian  Discoveries,"  3d  ed..  New  York,  1876, 
pp.  73,  seq. 

"^  Who,  after  Botta's  and  Layard's  fruitless  attempts,  very  evidently  did 
not  regard  that  section  worth  keeping.  For  on  other  occasions  he  took  quite 
a  different  attitude  both  against  Place  and  Loftus  in  his  vigorous  defence  of 
the  interests  ot  the  British  Museum. 


132  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

satisfied,  particularly  as  the  time  rapidly  drew  near  when 
the  funds  available  for  his  work  would  cease.  His  only 
hope  lay  in  the  northern  part  of  Qoyunjuk,  over  which  he 
had  no  control,  but  which  he  longed  to  examine.  How 
could  he  explore  it  "  without  getting  into  hot  water  with 
Mr.  Place  "  ?  If  anything  was  to  be  done,  it  had  to  be 
done  quickly.  He  decided  upon  an  experimental  examina- 
tion of  the  spot  by  a  few  trustworthy  Arabs  at  night.  A 
favorable  opportunity  and  a  bright  moonlight  were  all  that 
was  required  for  his  nocturnal  adventure,  and  they  pre- 
sented themselves  very  soon.  Let  us  hear  the  story  of  this 
daring  attempt,  and  of  his  subsequent  discovery,  in  Ras- 
sam's  own  language. 

"  It  was  on  the  night  of  the  aoth  of  December,  1853, 
that  I  commenced  to  examine  the  ground  in  which  I  was  for- 
tunate enough  to  discover,  after  three  nights'  trial,  the  grand 
palace  of  Ashurbanapal,  commonly  known  by  the  name  of 
Sardanapalus.  When  everything  was  ready  I  went  and 
marked  three  places,  some  distance  from  each  other,  in 
which  our  operations  were  to  be  commenced.  Only  a  few 
trenches  had  been  opened  there  in  the  time  of  Sir  Henry 
Layard;  but  on  this  occasion  I  ordered  the  men  to  dig 
transversely,  and  cut  deeper  down.  I  told  them  they  were 
to  stop  work  at  dawn,  and  return  to  the  same  diggings  again 
the  next  night.  The  very  first  night  we  worked  there,  one 
of  the  gangs  came  upon  indications  of  an  ancient  build- 
ing ;  but  though  we  found  among  the  rubbish  painted 
bricks  and  pieces  of  marble  on  which  there  were  signs  of 
inscriptions  and  bas-reliefs,  I  did  not  feel  sanguine  as  to  the 
result.  The  next  night  the  whole  number  of  workmen  dug 
in  that  spot ;  and,  to  the  great  delight  of  all,  we  hit  upon  a 
remnant  of  a  marble  wall,  on  examining  which  I  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  belonged  to  an  Assyrian  building 
which  had  existed  on  that  spot.  The  remnant  of  the  bas- 
relief  showed  that  the  wall  was  standing  in  its  original  posi- 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      133 

tion,  and,  though  the  upper  part  of  it  had  been  destroyed, 
I  was  able  to  judge,  from  experience,  that  it  had  not  been 
brought  thither  from  another  building.  The  lower  part  of 
the  slab,  which  contained  the  feet  of  Assyrian  soldiers  and 
captives,  was  still  fixed  in  the  paved  floor  with  brick  and 
stone  masonry,  intended  to  support  it  at  the  back.  To  my 
great  disappointment,  after  having  excavated  round  the  spot 
a  few  feet,  both  the  remnant  of  the  bas-relief  and  the  wall 
came  to  an  end,  and  there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  save  ashes, 
bones,  and  other  rubbish.  .  .  .  This  put  a  damper  on  my 
spirits,  especially  as  I  had  on  that  day  reported  to  both  the 
British  Museum  authorities  and  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  the 
discovery  of  what  I  considered  to  be  a  new  palace,  as  I  was 
then  fully  convinced  of  its  being  so.  I  knew,  also,  that  if  1 
failed  to  realize  my  expectations  I  should  only  be  found  fault 
with  and  laughed  at  for  my  unrewarded  zeal.  However,  I 
felt  that  as  I  had  commenced  so  I  must  go  on,  even  if  only 
to  be  disappointed.  The  next  night  1  superintended  the 
work  in  person,  and  increased  the  number  of  men,  placing 
them  in  separate  gangs  around  the  area,  which  seemed  the 
most  likely  place  for  good  results.  The  remnant  of  the 
sculptured  wall  discovered  was  on  a  low  level,  running  up- 
ward, and  this  fact  alone  was  enough  to  convince  an  experi- 
enced eye  that  the  part  of  the  building  I  had  hit  upon  was 
an  ascending  passage  leading  to  the  main  building.  I  there- 
fore arranged  my  gangs  to  dig  in  a  southeasterly  direction, 
as  I  was  certain  that  if  there  was  anything  remaining  it 
would  be  found  there.  The  men  were  made  to  work  on 
without  stopping,  one  gang  assisting  the  other.  Mv  instinct 
did  not  deceive  me  ;  for  one  division  of  the  workmen,  after 
three  or  four  hours'  hard  labor,  were  rewarded  by  the  first 
grand  discovery  of  a  beautiful  bas-relief  in  a  perfect  state 
of  preservation,  representing  the  king,  who  was  afterwards 
identified  as  Ashurbanapal,  standing  in  a  chariot,  about  to 
start  on  a  hunting  expedition,  and  his  attendants  handing 


134  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

him  the  necessary  weapons  for  the  chase.  .  .  .  The  delight 
of  the  workmen  was  naturally  beyond  description  ;  for  as 
soon  as  the  word  suwar  ('images')  was  uttered,  it  went 
through  the  whole  party  like  electricity.  They  all  rushed 
to  see  the  new  discovery,  and  after  having  gazed  on  the 
bas-relief  with  wonder,  they  collected  together,  and  began 
to  dance  and  sing  my  praises,  in  the  tune  of  their  war- 
song,  with  all  their  might.  Indeed,  for  a  moment  I  did 
not  know  which  was  the  most  pleasant  feeling  that  pos- 
sessed me,  the  joy  of  my  faithful  men  or  the  finding  of  the 
new  palace."  ^ 

After  this  unmistakable  success  had  rewarded  his  clandes- 
tine efforts,  Rassam  was  no  longer  afraid  of  French  or  Turk- 
ish interference,  and  accordingly  ordered  the  work  to  be 
continued  in  broad  daylight.  For  "  it  was  an  established 
rule  that  whenever  one  discovered  a  new  palace,  no  one  else 
could  meddle  with  it,  and  thus,  in  mv  position  as  the  agent 
of  the  British  Museum,  I  had  secured  it  for  England."  The 
large  edifice  once  having  been  discovered,  one  cannot  help 
wondering  how  Botta  and  Layard  could  have  missed  com- 
ing upon  some  of  its  walls,  which  in  many  places  were  only 
a  foot  below  the  surface,  and  indeed  in  one  or  two  instances 
so  close  to  it  that  "a  child  might  have  scratched  the  ground 
with  his  fingers  and  touched  the  top  of  the  sculptures." 
Before  the  first  day  was  over,  Rassam  had  cleared  the  upper 
parts  of  all  the  bas-reliefs  which  adorned  the  long  but 
narrow  hall,  known  as  the  "  lion-room,"  because  the  subject 
here  represented  is  the  royal  lion-hunt.  The  sculptures 
gathered  from  this  and  other  chambers  of  the  palace  belong 
to  the  finest  specimens  of  Assyrian  art.  The  change  from 
the  old  school  of  the  tenth  century  to  that  of  the  later  period 
referred  to  above  (p.  117),  both  in  the  design  and  in  the 
execution  of  single  objects  and  persons  and  of  whole  groups, 

^  Comp.    Rassam,  *'  Asshur  and  the  Land  ofNimrod,"  New  York,  1897, 
pp.   24,  segq. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND   BABYLONIA      135 

is  even  more  pronounced  in  the  sculptures  of  the  palace  of 
Ashurbanapal  than  in  those  trom  the  reign  of  his  grand- 
father. They  are  distinguished  by  the  sharpness  of  the 
outhne,  their  minute  finish,  and  the  very  correct  and  strik- 
ing dehneation  of  animals,  especially  lions  and  horses,  in 
their  different  motions  and  positions.  In  looking  at  these 
fine  bas-reliefs  we  gain  the  conviction  that  the  artist  has  care- 
fully studied  and  actually  seen  in  life  what  he  has  repro- 
duced here  so  truthfully  in  stone  on  the  walls.  The  furious 
lion,  foiled  in  his  revenge,  burying  his  teeth  in  the  chariot 
wheels  ;  the  wounded  lioness  with  her  outstretched  head, 
suffering  agony,  and  vainly  endeavoring  to  drag  her  para- 
lyzed lower  limbs  after  her;  or  the  king  on  his  spirited 
horse  with  wild  excitement  in  his  face,  and  in  hot  pursuit  of 
the  swift  wild  ass  of  the  desert,  —  all  these  scenes  are  so 


Kinu'  Ashurbanapal  HunririL: 


realistic  in  their  conception,  and  at  the  same  time  so  beau- 
tifully portrayed,  that  from  the  beginning  they  have  found 
a  most  deserved  admiration. 

This  lion-room  was  a  picture  gallery  and  library  at  the 
same  time.  For  in  the  centre  of  the  same  hall  Rassam 
discovered  the  other  half  of  Ashurbanapal's  librarv,  sev- 
eral thousand  clay^  tablets,  mostlv  fragmentary,  in  char- 
acter similar  to  those  rescued  by  Layard,  and  including 
the  Assyrian  account  of  the  Deluge.  It  is  impossible  to 
follow  Rassam   into  all   the  chambers  which  he  laid  open. 


11 


13G  EXl'LORATLOSS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

and  which  were  generally  lined  with  bas-reliefs  illustrating  the 
king's  wars  against  Elam,  Babylonia,  the  Arabs,  etc.  While 
breaking  down  the  walls  of  one  of  these  rooms,  he  found 
a  large  terra-cotta .prism,  unfortunately  crumbling  to  pieces 
when  exposed  to  the  air,  but  soon  afterwards  replaced  by 
the  fragments  of  a  second.  They  were  duplicates,  and  con- 
tained the  annals  of  Ashurbanapal,  equally  important  for 
our  knowledge  of  the  history  and  for  a  study  of  the  lan- 
guage and  grammar  of  that  prominent  period  of  Assyrian 
art  and  literature. 

During  the  first  three  months  in  1854  the  fortunate 
explorer  was  busv  in  excavating  the  palace  as  tar  as  he 
could.  But  his  funds  were  limited  and  quickly  exhausted. 
At  the  beginning  of  April  he  was  obliged  to  dismiss  the 
different  gangs  of  workmen  employed  at  Ooyunjuk  and 
Nimrud  and  to  return  to  England.  The  acceptance  of  a  po- 
litical appointment  at  Aden  prevented  him  from  going  out  to 
Nineveh  again  in  the  same  year,  as  the  British  Museum  had 
planned.  His  place  was  filled  bv  Lottus  and  bv  Boutcher, 
who  acted  as  the  artist  of  the  former.  They  had  been  tor 
some  time  in  Southern  Babylonia,  carrying  on  excavations 
at  a  moderate  rate  on  behalf  ot  the  Assyrian  Excavation 
Eund.  This  was  a  private  society  organized  tor  the  purpose 
of  enlarging  the  field  of  English  operations  in  Assyria  and 
Babylonia,  as  the  parliamentary  grant  secured  by  the  British 
Museum  was  considered  quite  inadequate  for  the  proper 
continuation  of  the  national  work  so  gloriously  initiated  by 
Lavard.  The  thought  and  spirit  which  led  to  the  founding 
of  this  society  w'ere  most  excellent  and  praisew^orthy,  but  the 
method  and  means  by  which  its  representatives  endeavored 
to  reach  their  aim  were  neither  tactful  nor  wise,  and  finally 
became  even  prejudicial  to  the  very  interests  thev  intended 
to  serve.  Instead  of  placing  their  contributions  and  funds 
with  a  statement  of  their  desired  application  at  the  disposal 
of  the   British    Museum,  that  great   national   agency  for  all 


DUIilNG  I'JTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      137 

such  archaeological  undertakings,  the  managers  of  the  new 
corporation  proceeded  independently.  The  expedition  which 
they  sent  out  appeared  as  a  competitor  rather  than  as  a 
helpmate  of  the  other,  and  was  about  to  risk  serious  col- 
lisions between  the  rival  workmen  of  the  two  parties  by 
occupying  the  same  mound  of  Ooyunjuk  after  Rassam's  de- 
parture, when  upon  the  energetic  representation  of  Rawlin- 
son,  who  naturally  did  not  look  very  favorably  on  the  pro- 
ceedings of  this  new  society,  an  arrangement  was  concluded 
in  London  which  placed  matters  on  an  entirely  satisfactory 
basis.  The  Assyrian  Excavation  Fund  transferred  its  re- 
maining propertv  to  the  British  Museum,  and  decided  that 
Loftus  and  Boutcher  should  henceforth  receive  their  direc- 
tions from  Rawlinson. 

The  examination  of  the  north  palace  of  Ashurbanapal  at 
Nineveh  was  resumed  with  new  vigor  under  these  two  men, 
who  had  gathered  considerable  experience  in  the  trenches  of 
Warka  and  Senkere.  While  Boutcher  drew  the  numerous 
sculptures  and  copied  the  monumental  inscriptions,  Loftus 
continued  the  excavations  where  Rassam  had  left  them,  try- 
ing first  of  all  to  determine  the  precise  extent  of  the  new 
building.  But  he  also  cleared  a  portion  of  its  interior,  and 
laid  bare  the  whole  ascending  passage  and  a  portal  with 
three  adjoining  rooms  at  the  western  corner.  Being  deeply 
interested  in  the  edifice  as  a  whole,  and  in  the  determination 
of  its  architectural  features,  somewhat  neglected  by  his  pre- 
decessor, he  did  not  confine  himself  to  digging  for  new 
sculptures,  though  appreciating  them  whenever  they  were 
found.  The  bas-relief  representing  the  king  in  comfortable 
repose  upon  a  couch  under  the  trees  of  his  garden,  and  the 
queen  sitting  on  a  chair  beside  him,  both  drinking  from 
cups  while  attendants  with  towels  and  fans  stand  behind 
them,  was  with  man)  other  interesting  monuments  discov- 
ered by  Loftus.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  British  Mu- 
seum  had   not  the   means  or  did   not  care  to  continue  the 


138  EXPLOIiAriONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

excavations  at  Nineveh  and  Calah  atter  Rawlinson's  final 
departure  from  Baghdad,  for  Loftus  and  Boutcher  were  soon 
recalled.  Repeated  attempts  have  been  made  since  to  re- 
sume the  work  at  Ooyunjuk,  but  a  Layard  was  not  found 
to  remove  the  obstacles  in  the  field  and  to  stir  the  masses 
at  home  to  provide  the  financial  support.  Neither  of  the 
two  large  buildings  which  occupy  the  platform  of  Ooyunjuk 
has  as  vet  been  thoroughly  explored,  and  much  more  re- 
mains to  be  done  before  the  grand  palace  of  Ashurbanapal 
with  its  hidden  treasures  will  rise  before  our  eyes  as  com- 
pletely as  that  excavated  in  a  methodical  manner  by  Botta 
and  Place  at  Khorsabad. 


FIRST    SUCCESSFUL   ATTEMPTS    IN    BABYLONIA 

During  the  first  four  years  of  the  second  half  of  the  last 
centurv  the  proverbial  solitude  of  the  Babylonian  ruins 
seemed  to  have  disappeared  temporarily  under  the  powerful 
influence  of  some  magical  spell.  Eraser's  intrepid  march 
across  the  desolate  plain  and  extensive  swamps  ot  'Iraq,  fol- 
lowed by  his  intelligent  report  of  the  innumerable  mounds 
and  other  frequent  traces  of  a  high  civilization  which  he  had 
met  everywhere  in  the  almost  forgotten  districts  of  the  inte- 
rior of  Babvlonia,  had  directed  the  general  attention  again 
to  the  vast  ruins  of  ancient  Chaldea.  Botta's  and  Layard's 
epoch-making  discoveries  in  the  royal  palaces  of  Khorsa- 
bad and  Nimrud  had  created  an  extraordinary  enthusiasm 
throughout  Europe.  As  a  result  of  both,  scholars  began 
to  meditate  about  the  possibilities  connected  with  a  method- 
ical exploration  of  the  most  conspicuous  ruins  in  Babylonia. 
The  earlier  accounts  and  descriptions  of  Rich  and  Ker 
Porter  and  Buckingham  were  eagerly  devoured  and  reex- 
amined with  a  new  zeal,  stimulated  by  the  hope  of  finding 
other  indications  that  the  soil  of  the  countrv  in   the  south 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA       139 

would  contain  no  less  important  treasures  than  those  which 
had  just  been  extracted  from  the  Assyrian  tells  in  the  north. 
But  neither  scientific  nor  religious  interest  was  the  imme- 
diate cause  of  these  tentative  but  fundamental  researches  in 
Babylonia  with  which  we  will  now  occupy  ourselves  in  the 
following  pages.  The  first  successful  explorations  and  exca- 
vations in  the  interior  of  Babylonia  were  rather  the  indirect 
result  of  certain  political  difficulties,  which  in  1839-40 
threatened  to  lead  to  serious  complications  between  Turkey 
and  Persia.  The  chief  trouble  was  caused  by  the  extensive 
frontier  between  the  two  Mohammedan  neighbors  continu- 
ally changing  its  limits  as  the  strength  of  either  government 
for  the  time  prevailed.  Under  the  influence  of  the  cabinets 
of  England  and  Russia,  which  offered  their  friendly  media- 
tion in  order  to  maintain  peace  in  regions  not  very  tar  from 
their  own  frontiers  in  India  and  Georgia,  a  joint  commis- 
sion with  representatives  from  the  four  powers  was  finally 
appointed  and  instructed  "  to  survey  and  define  a  precise 
line  of  boundary  between  the  two  countries  in  question 
which  might  not  admit  of  future  dispute."  The  work 
of  this  "  Turco-Persian  Frontier  Commission,"  atter  meet- 
ing with  extraordinary  difficulties  and  delays,  lasted  from 
1849  to  1852. 

WILLIAM     KENNETT     LOFTUS 

To  the  Staff  of  the  British  commissioner.  Colonel  Wil- 
liams, "  the  Hero  of  Kars,"  was  attached,  as  geologist, 
William  Kennett  Loftus,  who  utilized  the  rare  facilities 
granted  to  him  as  a  member  of  that  commission  to  satisfy 
"  his  strong  desire  for  breaking  new  ground  "  in  an  unex- 
plored region,  "  which  from  our  childhood  we  have  been  led 
to  regard  as  the  cradle  of  the  human  race." 

After  a  short  trip  to  the  ruins  of  Babylon,  Kl-Birs,  Ketil 
(with  "the  tomb  of  the  prophet  Kzekiel"),  Kufa,  famous 
in  earlv  Moslem  historv,  and  the  celebrated  Persian  shrines 


140  EXPLOIiAriOXS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

of  Meshhed'Ali  and  Kerbela,  —  all  hut  the  first  situated  on 
the  western  side  ot  the  b-uphrates, —  Loftus  decided  to  ex- 
amine the  geologv  of  the  Chaldean  marshes  and  to  explore 
the  ruins  of  Warka,  which,  previous  to  the  discovery  of  the 
Muqayvar  cyhnders,  on  the  basis  ot  native  tradition,  Sir 
Henry  Rawlinson  was  inclined  to  identify  with  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees,  the  birthplace  of  the  patriarch  Abraham.  An 
opportunitv  presented  itself  towards  the  end  ot  December, 
1849,  when  the  representatives  of  the  four  powers,  for 
nearlv  eight  months  detained  at  Baghdad,  were  at  last 
ordered  to  proceed  to  the  southern  point  of  the  disputed 
boundary  line.  While  the  other  members  of  the  party  were 
conveyed  to  Mohammera  bv  the  armed  steamer  Nitocris, 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Felix  Jones,  mentioned 
above  in  connection  with  his  excellent  maps  of  Nineveh, 
Loftus,  accompanied  bv  his  friend  and  comrade,  H.  A. 
Churchill,  and  a  number  of  irregular  Turkish  horsemen, 
took  the  land  route  between  the  F.uphrates  and  Tigris, 
hitherto  but  once  trodden  bv  European  foot. 

Notwithstanding  the  great  difficulties  and  dangers  then 
attending  a  journey  into  Babylonia  proper,  the  two  explor- 
ers,"  determined  on  being  pleased  with  anything,"  overcame 
all  obstacles  with  courage  and  patience,  reaching  the  camp 
of  the  frontier  commission  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the 
Shatt  el-'Arab  safely  after  an  absence  of  several  weeks. 
They  had  crossed  the  unsafe  districts  of  the  Zobaid  Arabs 
and  their  tributaries,  regarded  as  perfectlv  wild  and  uncon- 
trolled in  those  days  ;  they^  had  visited  the  filthv  reed  huts 
of  the  fickle  and  unreliable  'Afej  tribes,  inhabiting  the  verge 
and  numerous  islands  of  the  immense  swamps  named  after 
them  ;  and  riding  parallel  with  the  course  of  the  ancient 
bed  of  the  Shatt  el-Kar,  they  had  established  friendly  re- 
lations with  the  wildest  and  poorest  but  good-natured 
Ma'dan  tribes  in  Southern  Babylonia.  Everywhere,  like 
Eraser,  they^  had  found  traces  of  an  early  civilization  and  a 


DURING  I'J'^'"   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND    HAliYLONIA      141 

former  dense  population,  and  for  the  first  time  they  had 
closely  examined  these  lofty  and  massive  piles  covered  with 
fragments  of  stone  and  broken  pottery,  which  loom  up  in 
solitary  grandeur  from  the  surrounding  plains  and  marshes 
of  ancient  Chaldea.      The  ruins   of  Nuffar,  Hammam,  Tell 


Ruins  of  Tell  Hammikm 


(J)ide,  Warka,  Muqayyar,  and  others  became  at  once  cen- 
tres of  general  interest,  and  were  rescued  forever  from  the 
oblivion  of  past  centuries. 

Loftus'  enthusiastic  report  of  all  the  wonderful  things 
which  he  had  seen,  illustrated  by  careful  sketches  and  plans 
and  by  a  number  of  small  antiquities  picked  up  on  the 
surface  of  the  various  mounds,  or  purchased  for  a  trifle 
from  the  neighboring  Arabs,  impressed  Colonel  Williams 
so  favorably  that  he  readily  listened  to  the  suggestions  of 
the  bold  explorer  "  that  excavations  should  be  conducted 
on  a  small  scale  at  Warka."     After  a  few  davs'  rest,  we  find 


142  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Loftus  again  on  his  way  to  the  ruins,  suppHed  with  the 
necessary  funds  by  his  patron,  and  "  with  instructions  more 
especially  to  procure  specimens  of  the  remarkable  coffins  of 
the  locality,  and  seek  objects  as  might  be  easily  packed  for 
transmission  to  the  British  Museum."  His  whole  caravan 
consisted  of  four  servants,  three  muleteers,  two  Arab  guides, 
and  fifteen  horses  and  mules. 

Under  the  protection  of  the  powerful  Muntefik(  j)  shaikh 
Fah(a)d  ("  Leopard,"  "  Panther"),  Loftus  proceeded  to  the 
Arab  encampment  nearest  to  the  ruins  of  Warka.  It  was 
fully  six  miles  away  from  the  scene  of  his  labors,  a  distance 
soon  afterwards  increased  even  to  nine  miles,  when,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  frequent  desertions  of  his  Tuwaiba  work- 
men, he  was  forced  to  decamp  to  Durraji  on  the  Euphrates, 
in  order  to  ensure  greater  safety  to  his  little  party. 

His  work  of  three  weeks  was  harassing  in  the  extreme. 
"  At  sunrise,"  to  quote  his  own  words,  "  I  set  out  with  the 
Arabs  for  the  mounds,  .  .  .  and  never  left  them  during  the 
whole  dav.  The  soil  was  so  light  that,  .in  walking  from 
trench  to  trench,  my  feet  were  buried  at^'each  step.  The 
Arabs  required  constant  directions  and  .watching.  It  was 
usually  long  after  sunset  ere  we  returned  to  camp,  stum- 
bling every  instant  over  the  broken  ground.  A  few  min- 
utes sufficed  for  me  to  swallow  the  food  my  cook  had 
prepared,  when,  almost  tired  to  death,  I  was  obliged  to  lay 
down  plans  from  my  rough  notes,  write  my  journal,  and  pack 
the  objects  procured  in  the  course  of  the  day.  On  many- 
occasions  it  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  I  retired 
to  rest,  perfectly  benumbed  from  the  intensity  of  the  cold, 
which  even  the  double  walls  of  my  little  tent  could  not 
exclude." 

After  many  fruitless  trials  and  the  demolition  of  perhaps 
a  hundred  specimens,  Loftus  succeeded  in  finding  a  method 
bv  which  some  of  the  fragile  but  heavy  slipper-shaped 
coffins  so   abundantly  found  at  Warka  could  be  removed 


DURING   lOrn   CENTURY;   ASSYRIA   AND   BAIiYLONIA      143 

without  breaking.  The  surface  of  the  coffin  having  been 
carefully  cleaned,  inside  and  out,  thick  layers  of  paper  were 
pasted  on  both  sides.  When  thoroughly  dried,  this  hard 
mass  became  like  a  sheath,  strengthening  and  protecting  the 
enclosed  coffin,  which  now  could  be  lifted  and  handled  with- 
out difficulty.  Many  years  later,  in  connection  with  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania's  excavations  at  Nuffar,  the  same 
method  was  often  employed  with  the  same  general  result, 
and  more  than  fifty  coffins  were  carried  away  "whole"  to 
F.urope  and  America.  Yet  after  a  long  experience  I  have 
definitely  abandoned  this  method  as  unsatisfactory  and  most 
damaging  to  the  blue  enamel  of  the  object  thus  treated. 
It  is  by  far  wiser  to  save  and  pack  all  the  fragments  of 
glazed  coffins  separately  and  to  put  them  together  at  home 
in  a  strictly  scientific  manner.  Yet  for  the  time  being 
Loftus  might  well  feel  proud  of  having  been  able  to  secure 
the  first  three  complete  Babylonian  coffins,  then  still  un- 
known to  European  scholars.  Under  the  dances  and  yells 
of  his  Tuwaiba  Arabs,  frantic  with  delight  and  excitement, 
they  were  carried  with  numerous  other  antiquities  to  the 
river,  whence  they  were  shipped  to  the  British  Museum. 

Towards  the  end  of  1853  Loftus  returned  to  the  ruins  ot 
Babylonia  for  the  last  time,  in  charge  of  an  expedition  sent 
out  by  the  "  Assyrian  Excavation  Fund  "  of  London  and 
accompanied  by  his  two  friends,  W.  Boutcher  and  T.  Kerr 
Lynch.  In  order  to  secure  him  greater  facilities,  he  was 
soon  afterwards  appointed  by  his  government  an  attache  of 
the  British  Embassy  at  Constantinople.  It  was  his  inten- 
tion to  commence  operations  at  the  conspicuous  mound  of 
Hammam,  where  in  connection  with  a  former  visit  he  had 
found  the  large  fragments  of  a  fine  but  intentionally  defaced 
statue  in  black  granite.  But  the  utter  lack  of  water  in  the 
Shatt  el-Kar  interfered  seriously  with  his  plans.  Compelled, 
therefore,  to  seek  another  locality,  he  decided  at  once  to 
resume  the  excavation  of  Warka,  where  he  had  won  his  first 


144  EXPLORATIONS   IX    BIBLE  LANDS 

laurels.  And  it  was  in  connection  with  this  last  visit  to  the 
place  so  dear  to  him  that  he  effected  the  principal  discoveries 
which  established  his  name  as  a  Babylonian  explorer. 

The  first  three  months  of  the  year  1854  he  devoted  to 
his  difficult  task.  Conditions  around  Warka  had  completely 
changed  during  his  absence.  The  Tuwaiba  tribe  had  been 
driven  out  of  Mesopotamia,  and  it  was  no  small  matter  to 
obtain  the  necessary  gangs  of  workmen  from  his  distant 
friends  and  the  exorbitant  shaikh  of  Kl-Khidhr.  In  con- 
sequence of  the  river  having  failed  to  overflow  its  natural 
banks  in  the  previous  years,  extreme  poverty  prevailed 
among  the  Arabs  of  the  Lower  Euphrates,  and  it  became 
necessary  to  order  all  the  supplies  for  men  and  beasts  from 
Suq  esh-Shiyukh,  a  distance  of  sixty  miles,  while  every  day 
a  number  of  camels  were  engaged  to  carry  water  from  the 
river  to  the  camp,  which  he  had  pitched  halfway  between 
El-Khidhr  and  the  ruins,  and  to  the  Arabs  working  in  the 
trenches  of  Warka,  nine  miles  away.  To  make  the  situation 
even  more  disagreeable,  frequent  sand-storms,^  especially 
characteristic  of  the  regions  of  Warka  and  Jokha  and  Tell 
Ibrahim  (Cuthah),  at  the  slightest  breath  of  air  enveloped 
the  mounds  "  in  a  dense  cloud  of  impalpable  sand,"  driv- 
ing from  their  places  the  workmen,  who  often  lost  their 
way  in  returning  to  camp.  Loftus,  however,  was  not  to  be 
discouraged  by  all  the  difficulties,  and  with  determination 
he  tried  to  accomplish  his  task. 

The  ruins  of  Warka,  the  largest  in  all  Babylonia,  are 
situated  on  an  elevated  tract  of  desert  soil  slightly  raised 
above  a  series  of  inundations  and  marshes  caused  by  the 
annual  overflowing  of  the  Euphrates.  When  this  inunda- 
tion does  not  occur,  the  desolation  and  solitude  of  Warka 
are  even  more  striking  than  at  ordinary  seasons.  There  is 
then  no  life  for  miles  around.  "  No  river  glides  in  gran- 
deur at  the  base  of  its  mounds  ;   no  green  date  groves  flour- 

'   At  least  twice  or  thrice  a  week. 


DURING   19TU  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      145 

ish  near  its  ruins.  The  jackal  and  the  hyaena  appear  to 
shun  the  dull  aspect  of  its  tombs.  The  king  of  birds  never 
hovers  over  the  deserted  waste.  A  blade  of  grass  or  an 
insect  finds  no  existence  there.  The  shrivelled  lichen  alone, 
clinging  to  the  withered  surface  of  the  broken  brick,  seems 
to  glory  in  its  universal  dominion  upon  these  barren  w'alls." 
No  wonder  that  of  all  the  deserted  pictures  which  Loftus 
ever  beheld,  that  of  Warka  incomparably  surpassed  them  all. 
The  ruins  represent  an  enormous  accumulation  of  long 
stretched  mounds  within  "  an  irregular  circle,  nearly  six 
miles  in  circumference,  defined  by  the  traces  ot  an  earthen 
rampart,  in  some  places  fifty  feet  high."  As  at  Nuffar,  a 
wide  depression,  the  bed  of  some  ancient  canal,  divides  this 
elevated  platform  of  debris  into  two  unequal  parts,  varying 


Tell  Buwerive  at  Warka 


in  height  from  tvventv  to  fifty  feet,  above  which  still  larger 
mounds  rise.  The  principal  and  doubtless  earliest  edifices 
are  found  in  the  southwest  section,  and  to  this  Lottus  very 
naturally  directed  his  attention.  Most  conspicuous  among 
them  is  a  pyramidal  mound,  about  a  hundred  feet  high, 
called  by  the  Arabs  Buwerive,  /.  e.,  "  reed  matting,"  because 
at  certain  intervals  reed  mats  are  placed  between  the  layers 


146  KXPLORAriONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

of  unbaked  brick.  It  represents  the  stage  tower  or  zig- 
gurrat  of  the  ancient  Babylonian  city  Uruk  or  Erech 
(Gen.  lo:  lo),  forming  part  of  the  famous  temple  E-anna^ 
sacred  to  the  goddess  Ninni  or  Nana.  The  mass  of  the 
structure,  which,  unlike  the  similar  towers  of  Muqayyar  and 
Nuffar,  at  present^  has  no  external  facing  of  kiln-baked 
brickwork,  is  at  least  as  old  as  King  Ur-Gur  (about  2700 
B.  c),  whose  name  is  stamped  upon  the  baked  bricks  of  the 
water  courses  "  built  in  the  centre  of  its  sides.  Singashid,  a 
monarch  living  somew'hat  later,  left  traces  of  his  restoration 
at  the  summit  of  the  Buweriye.  The  lowest  stage  was 
apparently  not  reached  by  Loftus,  who  after  a  fruitless 
attempt  to  discover  a  barrel  cylinder  in  the  west  corner  of 
the  building,  and  unable  to  carry  on  any  extensive  excava- 
tion, left  this  mound  to  future  explorers. 

Another  interesting  structure  at  Warka  is  a  ruin  called 
Wuswas,  said  to  be  derived  from  a  negro  of  this  name  who 
hunted  here  for  treasures.  It  is  situated  less  than  a  thou- 
sand feet  to  the  southwest  of  the  Buweriye,  and,  like  the 
latter,  though  much  smaller  in  size,  contained  in  a  walled 
quadrangle,  including  an  area  of  more  than  seven  and  a  half 
acres.      Its  corners  again  are  approximately  toward  the  four 

^  From  a  number  of  indications  and  details  in  Loftus'  description  it  fol- 
lows almost  with  certainty  that  the  stage  tower  of  Erech  originally  also  had 
the  usual  facing  of  brickwork.  It  evidently,  however,  furnished  welcome 
building  material  to  the  later  inhabitants  of  Erech.  More  extensive  and 
deeper  excavations  would  doubdess  reveal  traces  enough  in  the  lower  stage. 

-  Mistaken  by  Loftus  for  buttresses  <'  erected  for  the  purpose  of  supporting 
the  main  edifice  "(p.  167).  Comp.  Hilprecht,  "The  Babylonian  Expedition 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,"  series  A,  vol.  i.,  part  2,  p.  18.  I  doubt 
whether  Loftus  examined  all  the  four  sides  of  the  building  ("  on  the  centre  of 
each  side").  As  the  tower  must  have  had  an  entrance,  possibly  on  the 
'  southwest  side,  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  this  side  should  have  had  a 
drain  on  its  centre.  My  own  view  is  that,  like  the  ziggurrat  at  Nuffar,  the 
tower  at  Warka  had  such  *' buttresses  "  only  on  two  sides  (the  number 
"three,"  given  in  my  publication,  p.  18,  was  due  to  Haynes'  erroneous 
report). 


DURING   10'//   CEyTUllY:   ASSYRIA   AM)    UABVLOMA      147 

cardinal  points.  The  most  important  part  of  this  great 
enclosure  is  the  edifice  on  the  southwest  side,  which  is  246 
feet  long  and  174  feet  wide,  elevated  on  a  lofty  artificial 
platform  fifty  feet  high.  This  building  at  once  attracted 
Loftus'  attention.  By  a  number  of  trenches  he  uncovered 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  southwest  fa9ade,  which  in 
some  places  was  still  twenty-seven  feet  high.  The  peculiar 
style  of  exterior  decoration  here  exhibited  afforded  us  the 
first  glimpse  of  Babylonian  architecture.  On  the  whole, 
this  fa9ade  shows  the  same  characteristic  features  —  stepped 
recesses  with  chasings  at  their  sides,  repeated  at  regular 
intervals  —  as  the  exterior  of  Sargon's  palace  at  Khorsabad, 
excavated  by  Victor  Place  about  the  same  time,  or  the 
ancient  southeast  wall  of  the  temple  enclosure  at  Nippur, 
uncovered  during  our  latest  campaign  in  1 899-1900,  and 
many  other  Babylonian  public  buildings  examined  by  vari- 
ous explorers. 

Loftus  found  an  entrance  to  this  remarkable  complex  at 
its  northeast  side,  leading  into  a  large  outer  court  flanked 
by  chambers  on  either  side.  He  also  traced  and  partly 
excavated  a  number  of  halls  and  smaller  rooms  along  the 
southwest  fa9ade,  which  had  neither  door  nor  window ;  he 
could  ascertain  the  extraordinary  thickness  of  the  walls  as 
compared  with  the  size  of  the  enclosed  chambers,  and  the 
lack  of  uniformity  in  size  and  shape  noticeable  in  the  latter, 
—  another  characteristic  feature  of  Babylonian  architecture; 
he  found  that  the  bricks  used  in  the  construction  of  this 
edifice  were  either  marked  with  a  deeply  impressed  triangu- 
lar stamp  on  the  under  side  —  something  altogether  un- 
known from  early  Babylonian  ruins  —  or  were  stamped  with 
"  an  oblong  die  bearing  thirteen  lines  of  minute  cuneiform 
characters,"  which  has  not  vet  been  published.  But  Loftus 
was  unable  to  determine  the  real  character  of  this  structure. 
In  consideration  of  the  small  funds  at  his  disposal,  and 
apparently  disappointed  by  his  failure  to  discover  sculptured 


148 


EXPLORATIONS  IX    BIBLE  LANDS 


bas-reliefs  and  other  works  of  art,  similar  to  those  which 
had  repaid  the  labors  of  Botta,  Place,  and  Layard  in  the 
Assyrian  mounds,  he  abandoned  his  trenches  at  Wuswas, 
as  he  had  done  at  the  Buweriye,  trying  another  place  where 
he  might  find  the  coveted  treasures.  From  all  the  indications 
contained  in  Loftus'  description  of  his  work  at  Wuswas  we 
may  infer  that  the  remaining  walls  of  the  excavated  build- 
ing cannot  be  older  than  1400  b.  c,  and  possibly  are  about 
800  to  1000  vears  later,  apparentlv  being  a  temple  or  the 
residence  of  some  high-ranked  person. 

To  the  south  of  Wuswas  there  is  a  second  immense  struc- 
ture, resembling  the  former  in  area  and  general  disposition 
of  its  plan,  but  having  no  court  and  being  more  lofty  and 
therefore  more  imposing  in  the  distance.  The  bricks  bear- 
ing the  same  peculiarities  as  those  of  Wuswas,  it  seems  to 
be  of  about  the  same  age.  Loftus  accordingly  abstained  from 
examining  this  edifice,  turning  his  attention  rather  to  a 
doubtless  earlier  building  situated  nearly  on  a  level  with  the 
desert,  close  to  the  southern  angle  of  the  Buweriye.  He 
unearthed  part  of  a  wall,  thirty  feet  long,  entirely  composed 
of  small  vellow  terra-cotta  cones,  three  inches  and  a  half 


Tcrra-Cotta  Cone  \\\ul  al  W'arka 


lono;.  Thev  were  all  arranged  in  half  circles  with  their 
rounded  bases  facing  outwards.  "  Some  had  been  dipped  in 
red  and  black  color  and  were  arranged  in  various  ornamental 
patterns,  such  as  diamonds,  triangles,  zigzags,  and  stripes, 
which  had  a  remarkablv  pleasing  efi-ect."  Large  numbers 
of  such  cones,  frequentlv  bearing  votive  inscriptions,  have 
been  found  in  most  of  the  early   Babylonian  ruins  where 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      149 

excavations  were  conducted,  thus  proving  the  correctness  of 
Loftus'  theory  that  "  they  were  undoubtedly  much  used 
as  an  architectural  decoration  "  in  ancient  Chaldea. 

Another  extraordinary  mode  of  decoration  in  architecture 
was  found  in  a  mound  near  Wuswas.  Upon  a  basement  or 
terrace  of  mud-brick  there  rose  a  long  wall  entirely  com- 
posed of  unbaked  bricks  and  conical  vases,  fragments  of  the 
latter  being  scattered  all  about  the  surface  in  its  neighbor- 
hood. The  arrangement  was  as  follows:  "Above  the  foun- 
dation were  a  few  layers  of  mud-bricks,  and  superimposed 
on  which  were  three  rows  of  these  vases,  arranged  horizon- 
tally, mouths  outward,  and  immediately  above  each  other. 
This  order  of  brick  and  pot  work  was  repeated  thrice,  and 
was  succeeded  upwards  by  a  mass  of  unbaked  bricks.  The 
vases  vary  in  size  from  ten  to  fifteen  inches  in  length,  with 
a  general  diameter  at  the  mouth  of  four  inches.  The  cup 
or  interior  is  only  six  inches  deep,  consequently  the  conical 
end  is  solid."  One  can  easily  imagine  the  very  strange  and 
striking  eftect  produced  by  these  circular  openings  of  the 
vases,  the  original  purpose  and  age  of  which  Loftus  was 
unable  to  ascertain. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  Buweriye  he  excavated  a  terrace 
paved  with  bricks  "  inscribed  in  slightly  relieved  cuneiform 
characters  "  containing  the  name  of  Cambyses,  while  half  a 
mile  southeast  of  the  former,  in  a  small  detached  mound, 
he  found  a  large  mass  of  broken  columns,  capitals,  cornices, 
and  many  other  relics  of  rich  internal  decoration  —  all  be- 
longing to  the  Parthian  period. 

Important  portable  antiquities  of  early  Babylonian  times 
were  unfortunately  not  disclosed  by  the  explorer.  Yet  his 
excavations  were  by  no  means  entirely  lacking  in  literary 
documents  and  other  valuable  archaeological  objects,  thoue;h 
mostly  of  a  comparatively  late  period.  As  most  conspicuous 
among  them  may  be  mentioned  less  than  a  hundred  so- 
called  contract  tablets  of  the  Neo-Babylonian,  Persian,  and 

12 


150  KXI'LORATIONS  7A'    HIBLK  LANDS 

even  Seleucide  dynasties,  the  latter  at  the  same  time  proving 
that  at  least  as  late  as  the  third  pre-Christian  century  cunei- 
form writing  was  in  use  in  Babylonia  ;  a  few  syllabaries  and 
two  large  mushroom-shaped  cones  of  baked  clay  covered  on 
their  flat  tops  and  stems  with  cuneiform  legends;  an  inter- 
esting small  tablet  in  serpentine  with  pictures  on  the  one 
side  and  four  lines  of  earlv  cuneiform  characters  on  the 
other;  a  limestone  slab  with  an  imperfect  inscription  in 
South-Arabian  writing  —  the  first  ot  the  kind  discovered  in 
Babylonian  ruins  ;  a  brick  with  stamp  in  relief  of  an  ele- 
vated altar  surmounted  by  a  seven-rayed  sun;  several  terra- 
cotta figurines;  a  thin  silver  plate  embossed  with  a  beautiful 
temale  figure  ;  fragments  ot  a  bivalve  shell  {tridacna  squa- 
mosa)^ the  exterior  of  which  shows  fine  carvings  of  horses 
and  lotus  flowers,  etc. 

The  chief  results  ot  our  explorer's  rather  superficial  dig- 
gings atWarka  being  for  the  greater  part  due  to  a  fortunate 
accident  rather  than  to  a  clearlv  defined  method  and  logical 
planning,  were  of  real  importance  onlv  for  the  history  of 
architecture  and  for  a  study  ot  the  burial  customs  prevail- 
ing during  the  Persian,  Parthian,  and  later  occupations  of 
Babylonia.  Loftus  is  therefore  correct  in  summing  up  his 
labors  with  the  statement  that  "  Warka  may  still  be>  con- 
sidered as  unexplored."  Within  the  three  months  at  his 
disposal  he  scratched  a  little  here  and  there,  like  Layard  at 
Babvlon  and  Nuffar,  filled  with  a  nervous  desire  to  find 
important  large  museum  pieces  at  the  least  possible  outlay 
of  time  and  money.  Warka,  however,  is  not  the  place  to 
yield  them  readily.  Objects  of  art  and  business  archives 
and  libraries  with  precious  literar\'  documents  are  doubtless 
contained  in  the  enormous  mounds.  But  in  what  condition 
they  will  be  found  is  another  quite  different  question.  As 
we  know  from  cuneitorm  records,  the  Klamite  hordes  invad- 
ing Babylonia  towards  the  end  of  the  third  pre-Christian 
millennium  sacked  and  looted  the  temples  and  palaces  of 


DVBING   I'Ji'i   CL\\TUliY':   ASSYRIA   AND    HAHYLOSIA       lol 

ancient  Erech  above  others,  establishing  even  a  kingdom 
of  their  own  in  those  regions,  The  large  stratum  of  inten- 
tionally broken  inscribed  vases,  statues,  reliefs,  and  other 
objects  oi  art  oi  the  earliest  Babylonian  period  surrounding 
the  temple  court  of  Nippur,  which  1  have  shown  to  be  the 
results  of  revengeful  Elamite  destruction,  indicates  what  we 
mav  expect  to  find  in  the  middle  strata  of  Warka.  In  order 
to  reach  these  deeper  strata,  a  heavy  superincumbent  mass 
of  rubbish  and  funereal  remains,  representing  a  period  of 
about  one  thousand  years  after  the  fall  of  the  Neo-Babylo- 
nian  empire,  has  to  be  examined  and  removed. 

In  itself,  any  ancient  city  continuously  inhabited  for  at 
least  5000  years,  and  repeatedly  occupied  by  hostile  armies,  as 
Krech  was,  must  be  regarded  as  a  site  most  unfavorable  to 
the  discovery  of  large  and  well  preserved  earlier  antiquities. 
As  a  rule  these  latter,  if  escaping  the  vicissitudes  of  war, 
have  been  transferred  from  generation  to  generation  until 
they  were  consumed  or  damaged  in  their  natural  continued 
use,  while  others,  perhaps  intact  at  the  time  when  they  were 
hidden  under  collapsing  walls,  have  been  frequentlv  after- 
wards brought  to  light  in  connection  with  the  thousands  of 
later  burials.  No  longer  understood  or  appreciated  by  the 
inhabitants  of  a  subsequent  age,  and  frequentlv  also  of 
another  race  and  religion,  they  were  often  intentionallv 
broken  and  employed  in  a  manner  quite  different  from  their 
original  purpose. 

In  addition  to  the  points  just  mentioned,  the  natural 
conditions  around  Warka  are  even  worse  than  at  Nuffar. 
From  February  or  March  to  Julv  the  inundations  of  the 
Euphrates  extend  frequentlv  almost  to  the  verv  base  of 
the  ruins.  The  swamps  thus  formed  are  swarming  with  in- 
numerable mosquitoes,  which,  with  the  even  more  dreaded 
sand-fiies  of  the  surrounding  desert,  render  the  life  of  the 
explorer  extremely  miserable.  Towards  the  latter  part  of 
the  summer  the  waters  recede.      The  human  system,  being 


152  EXPLOUATIOys  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

worn  out  by  the  heat  and  fatigue  of  the  summer,  is  Hable  to 
fall  a  victim  to  the  severe  fevers  now  following,  which  have 
constantlv  proved  to  be  the  greatest  real  danger  to  our  own 
expeditions  at  Nuffar.  At  other  times,  particularly  when 
the  Euphrates  fails  to  inundate  those  regions,  fresh  water  is 
not  to  be  had  for  miles  in  the  neighborhood,  while  at  the 
same  time  the  frequent  sand-storms,  of  which  Warka  is  one 
of  the  most  characteristic  centres,  increase  the  general  discom- 
fort and  render  work  in  the  trenches  often  absolutely  impos- 
sible. No  expedition  should  ever  resume  excavations  at 
Warka  unless  it  fullv  understands  all  these  difficulties  be- 
forehand, and,  in  contrast  with  the  superficial  scratchings  of 
Loftus,  is  prepared  to  excavate  these  largest  of  all  Babylo- 
nian mounds  in  a  strictly  methodical  manner  for  a  period 
of  at  least  fifty  years,  assured  of  a  fund  of  no  less  than 
$500,000.  By  the  mere  "  digging"  for  a  few  years  at  such 
an  important  place  as  Warka,  Assyriology  would  irreparably 
lose  more  than  it  ever  could  gain  by  the  unearthing  of  a 
number  of  antiquities,  however  valuable  in  themselves. 

After  three  months  ot  brave  battling  against  odd  circum- 
stances Lottus  instinctively  began  to  realize  the  grandeur  of 
the  task  with  which  he  was  confronted,  and  the  utter  in- 
sufficiency of  the  means  at  his  disposal  and  the  methods 
hitherto  employed.  Accordingly  he  decided  to  quit  Warka, 
leaving  its  thorough  exploration  to  an  adequately  equipped 
future  expedition.  Under  the  protection  of  a  friendly 
shaikh  of  the  Shammar  Bedouins,  then  encamped  near  the 
ruins  of  Warka,  he  moved  to  Senkere,  on  the  western  bank 
of  the  Shatt  el-Kar,  situated  about  fifteen  miles  southeast  of 
the  former  and  plainly  visible  on  a  clear  day  from  the  sum- 
mit of  the  Buweriye.  These  mounds  had  previously  been 
visited  only  by  Fraser  and  Ross  in  the  course  of  their  hasty 
journey   through    the  Jezire,   briefly    described    above   (pp. 

54-56). 

As  over  against  the  lofty  ruins  of  Warka,  covering  a  city 


DURING  19™  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      153 

which  continued  to  be  inhabited  for  centuries  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the   Christian   era,  Senkere,  rather  smaller  in 
height  and  extent  than   the  former,  shows  no  trace  of  any- 
considerable  occupation  later  than  the  Neo-Babylonian  and 
Persian  periods.      From  the  very  beginning  it  was  therefore 
evident  that  Loftus'   labors  at  this  site  would  be  repaid  by 
much  quicker  and  more  satisfactory  results  than  at  Warka. 
The  two  principal  mounds  of  the  ruins,  which  measure  over 
four  miles   in   circumference,   were   first    examined.      They 
contained  the  remains  of  the  temple  and  stage-tower  of  the 
Sun-god,  as  was  readily  ascertained   by  a  few  trenches   cut 
into  their  centre  and   base.      The  stage-tower,   about  four 
hundred  paces  to  the  northeast  of  the  temple  ruins  proper, 
shows  the  same  peculiarities  as  the  Buwerive  at  Warka  and 
other  similar  buildings.      From  inscribed  bricks  taken  from 
this  mound  it  was  proved  that  Hammurabi,  of  the  so-called 
First  Dynasty  of  Babylon  (about  2250  b.  c),  and  Nabonidos, 
the  last  king  of  the  Neo-Babylonian  dynastv  (  SS^~S39  ^-  '^•)j 
were  among  those  who  repaired  this  very  ancient  structure. 
It  was  of  course  out  of  the  question  for  Loftus  to  make 
an  attempt    to  uncover  the  temple  of  the   Sun-god   com- 
pletely, in  order  to  restore  its   original  plan,  within  the  few 
weeks  which  he  was  able  to  devote  to  the  excavations  at 
Senkere.      However,  he  showed  that  upon  a  large  platform 
or  terrace  constructed  six  feet   above    another   larger  one, 
from  which  the  former  receded  seventy-four  feet,  there  stood 
a  large   hall  or  chamber  entirely  filled  with  rubbish.      The 
walls  of  this   building,  which   doubtless    formed   the   main 
feature  of  the  whole  oval   mound,  were   in   part  preserved, 
being  still  four  feet  high.      While  cleaning  its  characteristic 
entrance,  formed  by  ten  stepped  recesses,  Loftus  was  fortu- 
nate to  discover  two   barrel-shaped  clay  cylinders.     They 
were    duplicates,    bearing   the    same    inscription.      A  third 
copy  was  soon  afterwards  discovered  at  a  distant  part  of  the 
ruins.     From  these  cuneiform  records  and  from  numerous 


154  EXl'LORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

bricks  taken  from  the  upper  building  and  the  enclosing 
temple  wall,  it  was  ascertained  that,  in  accordance  with  a 
reference  on  the  cylinder  brought  by  Rich's  secretary 
Bellino  from  Babylon,  Nebuchadrezzar  had  devoted  con- 
siderable time  and  labor  to  the  restoration  of  this  ancient 
sanctuary.  It  became  furthermore  evident  that  the  ancient 
Babylonian  city  buried  under  the  ruins  of  Senkere  was  no 
other  than  Larsam,  sacred  to  Shamash  and  identical  with 
the  Biblical  Ellasar  (Gen.  14  :  i ).  From  a  single  brick  of 
sixteen  lines,  also  taken  from  these  ruins,  Sir  Henry  Raw- 
linson  obtained  the  name  of  a  new  king,  Burnaburiyash 
(about  1400  B.  c),  one  of  the  powerful  rulers  ot  the  Cassite 
dynasty,  while  the  lower  strata  of  the  mound  furnished 
ample  evidence  that  King  Ur-Gur  of  Ur  (about  2700  b.  c), 
the  great  builder  of  Babylonian  temples,  had  also  been  very 
active  at  Larsam. 

In  addition  to  these  very  important  discoveries,  by  which 
the  name  of  the  ancient  city  was  identified  and  the  first 
glimpses  of  its  long  history  obtained,  Loftus  furnished 
material  for  us  to  show  that  in  later  years,  when  the  temple 
was  in  ruins,  the  ground  of  the  destroyed  city  of  Larsam, 
like  the  other  more  prominent  mounds  of  Babylonia,  was 
used  as  a  vast  cemeterv.  Contrary,  however,  to  the  views 
of  Loftus  and  other  writers  who  followed  him  without 
criticism,  the  numerous  clay  tablets,  which  he  continually 
found  scattered  through  the  upper  layers  partially  burned, 
blackened  and  otherwise  damaged  by  fire,  and  disintegrating 
from  the  nitrous  earth  composing  or  surrounding  them,  in 
most  cases  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  tombs  in  and  around 
which  thev  occur.  Belonging  to  the  period  of  about  2400 
to  i;oo  B.  c,  these  tablets  as  a  rule  considerably  antedate 
those  burials.  It  has  not  yet  been  proved  that  in  real 
Babylonian  times  Larsam  was  a  cemetery,  and  in  fact  many 
strong  reasons  speak  against  such  an  assumption.  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  onlv    natural   to  infer  that  when   Larsam 


DUIilNG  nil"  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLOMA      155 


finally  was  no  more,  later  grave-diggers,  frequently  disturb- 
ing the  deserted  mounds  to  a  considerable  depth,  should 
accidentally  have  struck  hundreds  ot  clay  tablets  and  seal- 
cylinders,  which  they  moved  out  of  their  original  resting 
places  to  an  upper  stratum,  thus  filling  the  burial  ground 
with  the  literary  and  artistic  remains  of  an  older  period, 
and  creating  the  impression  upon  the  uninitiated  or  careless 
observer  that  the  burials  are  contemporary  with  those  anti- 
quities, and  that  the  latter  furnish  us  a  real  clue  for  de- 
termining the  age  of  the  former.  In  the  first  years  of  our 
own  excavations  at  Nuffar  I  was  frequently  misled  by  the 
positive  statements  of  those  in  the  field,  occasionally  quot- 
ing Loftus  and  Taylor  as  their  authorities,  until  by  person- 
ally taking  charge  of  the  expedition,  I  definitely  determined 
that  with  but  few  exceptions,  which  can  easily  be  explained, 
the  large  mass  of  tombs  at  NufFar  is  later  than  400  b.  c, 
though  often  found  thirty  feet  and  more  below  the  surface. 
Many  of  the  tablets  discovered  by  Loftus  were  wrapped 
in  thin  clay  envelopes,  similarly  inscribed,  and  like  the 
enclosed  document  covered  with 
the  impressions  of  seal  cylinders. 
Others,  also  bearing  the  impres- 
sions of  cylinders,  were  triangu- 
lar in  shape.  From  the  fact 
that  at  their  corners  there  are 
holes  through  which  cords  must 
have  passed,  it  became  evident, 
even  without  deciphering  their 
inscriptions,  that  they  were  used 
somewhat  like  labels  attached  to 
an    object.      As    a   rule    I    have 

found  Babylonian  documents  of  this  class  to  belong  to  the 
second  half  of  the  third  pre-Christian  millennium.  Of 
especial  value  and  interest  was  a  certain  tablet  which  proved 
to  be  a  table  of  squares  from  one  to  sixty,  both  numbers 


Clay  Tablet  with  Envelope,  Nuffar 


156  EXI'LOUATIOXS   I\    BIBLE  LANDS 

1  and  60,  heing  rendered  by  the  same  perpendicular  wedge, 
thus  confirming  the  statement  of  Berosus  that  the  Baby- 
lonians employed  a  sexagesimal  system  of  calculation. 

Among  the  stray  clay  reliefs  taken  from  the  upper  layers 
of  Senkere,  but  doubtless  belonging  to  a  much  earlier  period 
of  Babylonian  civilization,  are  some  tablets  with  a  religious 
representation,  others  showing  persons  employed  in  their 
every-day  life.  One  of  the  latter,  for  example,  exhibits  two 
persons  boxing,  while  two  others  are  occupied  over  a  large 
vase  ;  another  reproduces  a  lion  roaring  and  furiously  lash- 
ing his  tail  because  of  being  disturbed  in  his  feast  of  a  bullock 
bv  a  man  armed  with  a  hatchet  and  a  club. 

Larsam  is  one  of  those  mounds  easily  excavated  and 
sure  to  repay  the  labors  of  the  systematic  explorer  quickly. 
Representing  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  famous  Baby- 
lonian cities,  with  a  sanctuary  in  which  the  kings  of  all  ages 
down  to  Nabonidos  were  prominently  interested,  it  will 
furnish  literary  and  artistic  monuments  of  importance  for 
the  earlv  history  and  civilization  of  Babylonia. 

While  engaged  in  his  work  at  Senkere,  Lottus  sent  a 
few  gangs  of  workmen  to  the  ruins  of  Tell  Sifr  and  Tell 
Medina,  on  the  east  ot  the  Shatt  el-Kar.  The  trenches  cut 
into  the  desolate  mound  of  Medina,  situated  on  the  border 
of  extensive  marshes  and  inhabited  by  lions  and  other  wild 
animals,  yielded  no  results  beyond  a  single  stray  clay  tablet, 
a  number  of  tombs,  and  the  common  types  of  pottery.  But 
the  excavations  carried  on  for  a  few  days  at  Tell  Sitr 
("  Copper")  were  most  encouraging,  bringing  to  light  about 
one  hundred  mostly  well-preserved  case  tablets,  dated  in 
the  reigns  of  the  kings  of  the  First  Dynasty  of  Babylon 
(Samsu-iluna,  previously  unknown,  being  among  them), 
and  a  large  collection  of  caldrons,  vases,  dishes,  hammers, 
hatchets,  knives,  daggers,  fetters,  mirrors,  and  other  instru- 
ments and  utensils,  all  in  copper,  and  evidently  likewise 
belonging  to  the  second  half  of  the  third  pre-Christian 
millennium. 


DUEIXG   urn/   CEXTUHY:   ASSYRIA    AXD   BAIiYLOMA      157 

Untortunatelv  the  excavations  so  successfully  begun  at 
Senkere  and  Tell  Sitr  came  to  a  sudden  end.  The  con- 
tinued advance  of  the  marshes  trom  the  overflowing  of  the 
Shatt  el-Kar  indicated  very  plainlv  that  in  a  few  weeks  the 
whole  of  Southern  Babylonia  would  be  covered  with  inun- 
dations. The  Arabs,  who  tor  several  successive  vears  had 
terribly  suffered  trom  lack  of  water  and  food,  and  therefore 
were  anxious  to  cultivate  their  patches  of  land,  rapidlv  de- 
creased the  necessary  forces  in  the  trenches  bv  their  frequent 
desertions.  In  order  not  to  be  finally  left  alone  with  his 
excavated  treasures  on  an  isolated  mound  surrounded  bv  the 
Chaldean  swamps,  Loftus  was  forced  to  sacrifice  his  personal 
wishes  and  return  to  the  Euphrates,  much  to  his  regret 
quitting  the  South  Babylonian  mounds,  the  real  character 
and  contents  of  which  he  had  been  the  first  to  disclose  to 
the  public. 

SIR    AUSTEN     HEXRY     LAVARD 

The  next  to  appear  on  the  unexplored  ground  in  the 
South  was  Henry  Layard.  A  long  experience  in  the 
trenches  of  Nimrud  and  Qovunjuk  had  qualified  him  above 
others  for  the  exploration  of  the  mounds  in  ancient  Baby- 
Ionia.  Besides,  he  was  well  acquainted  with  the  life  and 
manners  of  the  Arabs,  and  not  unfamiliar  with  the  peculiar- 
ities of  'Iraq  el-'Arabi  as  a  whole.  For  in  connection  with 
his  earlv  adventures  in  Liaristan  and  Khuzistan  he  had 
visited  Baghdad  repeatedlv,  and  in  Arab  or  Persian  dis- 
guise he  had  travelled  even  among  the  lawless  tribes  of  the 
districts  adjoining  the  two  rivers  to  the  east  and  west  as  far 
down  as  Oorna  and  Basra.  Prevented  hitherto  bv  lack  of 
means  from  carrying  out  his  old  and  comprehensive  scheme 
of"  excavating  many  remarkable  sites  both  in  Chaldea  and 
Susiana,"  he  was  finallv  enabled  to  gratify  his  ardent  desire 
to  a  limited  extent.  Apparently  influenced  in  their  decision 
by  the  encouraging  results  of  Loftus'  first  tentative  work  at 


158  EXi'LOHATIONS    L\    BIHLK   LANDS 

Warka,  the  trustees  of  the  British  Museum  granted  him 
permission  to  excavate  some  ot  the  more  prominent  Baby- 
lonian mounds. 

Accompanied  by  his  trusted  comrade  Rassam  and  by 
about  thirty  of  his  most  experienced  workmen  from  Mosul, 
he  descended  the  Tigris  on  a  ratt,  reaching  Baghdad  October 
■26,  1850.  But  the  time  was  ill  chosen  for  his  exploring 
tour.  His  old  friend  Dr.  Ross  had  died  a  year  before; 
Colonel  Rawlinson,  the  British  resident,  was  on  a  leave  of 
absence  in  England ;  Hormuzd  Rassam  tell  seriously  ill 
soon  after  their  arrival,  and  the  whole  country  around  the 
city  was  swarming  with  Bedouins  in  open  revolt  against  the 
Ottoman  government,  so  that  it  was  next  to  impossible  to 
leave  for  the  ruins  of  Babvlon. 

Not  to  lose  time,  he  began  operations  at  Tell  Mohammed, 
a  few  miles  to  the  southeast  of  Baghdad,  where  Captain 
Jones'  crew  had  discovered  inscribed  bronze  balls,  trom 
which  it  became  evident  that  at  some  previous  time  a  roval 
Babylonian  palace  (of  Hammurabi)  had  occupied  this  site. 
Beyond  several  insignificant  finds  Lavard's  excavations 
proved  unsuccessful.  After  a  delay  ot  nearly  six  weeks  he 
moved  to  Hilla,  Owing  to  the  disturbed  state  ot  the 
country  he  could  do  no  more  than  pay  a  hurried  visit  to 
the  conspicuous  mound  of  El-Birs,  which,  like  his  prede- 
cessors, he  recognized  at  once  as  the  remains  of  a  stage 
tower,  "  the  general  type  of  the  Chaldean  and  Assyrian 
temples." 

As  soon  as  he  had  established  friendh'  relations  with  the 
most  influential  inhabitants  of  the  town,  he  commenced  ex- 
cavations at  Babil.  The  subterranean  passages  opened  by 
Rich  forty  years  previously  were  quickly  discovered  and 
followed  up,  but  without  results.  By  means  ot  a  tew  deep 
trenches  he  arrived  at  the  doubtless  correct  conclusion  that 
the  coffins  here  found  must  belong  to  a  period  subsequent  to 
the  destruction  ot  the  edifice  which  forms  the  centre  of  the 


DURING    Will  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND   JiABYLOMA      159 

mound,  and  that  in  all  probability  long  after  the  fall  of  the 
Babylonian  empire  a  citadel  had  crowned  its  summit.  He 
exposed  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  enormous  piers  and  but- 
tresses of  brickwork,  frequently  bearing  the  name  ot  Ne- 
buchadrezzar, but  he  could  find  no  clue  as  to  the  original 
character  of  the  gigantic  structure  which  had  left  such  vast 
remains. 

Next  he  turned  to  the  shapeless  mass  of  shattered  walls, 
known  since  the  time  of  Rich  under  the  name  of  Kl-Oasr 
("The  Palace"),  but  like  Babil  also  frequently  called  Mu- 
jeliba  ("  Overturned  ")  by  the  Arab  population.  Again  his 
labors  were  deficient  in  positive  results.  He  gathered  no- 
thing but  a  few  specimens  of  the  well-known  enamelled 
bricks  of  various  colors,  and  excavated  some  rudely  en- 
graved gems  and  the  fragment  of  a  limestone  slab  containing 
two  human  figures  with  unimportant  cuneiform  characters. 

No  better  antiquities  were  discovered  at  Tell  'Omran 
ibn  'All  and  several  smaller  mounds  included  in  the  terri- 
tory of  ancient  Babvlon.  After  a  month  of  nearly  fruitless 
digging  in  the  extensive  ruins  of  the  famous  metropolis  he 
decided  to  leave  a  small  gang  of  workmen  at  these  disap- 
pointing mounds  and  to  depart  with  his  Mosul  Arabs  for 
Tell  Nuffar,  the  only  place  in  the  interior  of  the  countrv 
to  which  he  devoted  a  few  weeks  of  concentrated  attention. 
At  the  head  of  a  good-sized  caravan  of  fifty  men  he  arrived 
at  the  marshes  ot  Nuffar  on  Januarv  17,  1851.  He  was 
received  in  the  most  friendlv  manner  bv  the  shaikh  ot  the 
'Afej,  whose  protection  he  had  solicited  before  he  left  the 
banks  of  the  F,uphrates.  But  much  to  his  disappointment 
and  personal  discomfort  he  felt  obliged  to  comply  with  the 
shaikh's  request  and  to  pitch  his  tent  at  Suq  el-'Afej,  "  the 
market  place "  of  the  tribe  and  the  residence  ot  his 
newly  acquired  patron.  The  conglomeration  of  filthy  reed 
huts  which  had  received  this  high-sounding  name  was 
situated   at   the   southeast  edge    of  the  unhealthy  marshes 


160 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


and  nearly  three  miles  away  from  the  ruins  of  NufFar.  In 
order  to  reach  the  latter  with  his  Arabs  of  Mosul  and  a 
number  of  'Atej,  it  was  necessary  to  cross  the  swamps  every 


'Afej  Reed-Huts  near  Nuffar 

day  bv  means  of  the  turrada^  a  long  narrow  and  shallow 
boat  of  the  natives  consisting  of  a  framework  of  bulrushes 
covered  with  bitumen. 

The  imposing  ruins  of  Nuffar,  with  Babylon  and  Warka 
the  largest  in  Babylonia,  are  situated  at  the  northeastern 
boundary  of  these  marshes,  which  vary  in  size  according  to 
the  extent  of  the  annual  inundations  of  the  F.uphrates.  A 
large  canal,  now  dry  and  for  miles  entirely  filled  with  sand 
and  rubbish,  divides  the  ruins  into  two  almost  equal  parts. 
It  is  called  by  the  surrounding  tribes  Shatt  en-Nil,  sup- 
posed  to    be   a   continuation   of  the    famous    canal    which, 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY :   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      1*31 

branching  off  from  the  Euphrates  above  Babylon,  once 
carried  life  and  fertility  to  the  otherwise  barren  plains  of 
Central  Babylonia,  On  an  average  about  fifty  to  sixty  feet 
high,  the  ruins  of  Nuffar  form  a  collection  of  mounds  torn 
up  by  frequent  gulleys  and  furrows  into  a  number  of  spurs 
and  ridges,  from  the  distance  not  unlike  a  rugged  mountain 
range  on  the  banks  of  the  upper  Tigris. 

In  the  Babylonian  language  the  city  buried  here  was  called 
Nippur.  Out  of  the  midst  of  collapsed  walls  and  broken 
drains  at  the  northeastern  corner  of  these  vast  ruins  there 
rises  a  conical  mound  to  the  height  of  about  ninety-five  feet 
above  the  present  level  of  the  plain.  It  is  called  Bint  el- 
Amir  ("  The  Princess  ")  by  the  Arabs  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  covers  the  remains  oflmg/iarsag,  the  ancient  stage-tower 
of  Ekur,  the  great  sanctuary  of  Bel.  An  almost  straight 
line  formed  bv  two  narrow  ridges  to  the  northeast  of  the 
temple  towards  the  desert  indicates  the  course  of  Nimit- 
Marduk,  the  outer  wall  of  the  city.  The  surface  of  this 
whole  mass  of  ruins  is  covered  with  numerous  fragments  of 
brick,  glazed  and  unglazed  pottery,  stone,  glass  and  scoria, 
which  generally  mark  the  sites  of  Babylonian  cities. 

Layard  spent  less  than  a  fortnight  at  these  ruins,  to  ex- 
amine their  contents,  devoting  considerable  time  to  the  fruit- 
less search  of  "  a  great  black  stone  "  said  by  the  Arabs  to 
exist  somewhere  in  the  mounds  of  Nuffar.  But  a  last  time 
his  hopes  and  expectations  connected  with  the  ruins  ot 
Babylonia  were  bitterly  disappointed.  Though  opening 
many  trenches  in  different  sections  of  the  ruins,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  conical  mound  at  the  northeastern  corner, 
where  forty  years  later  the  present  writer  still  found  their 
traces,  he  discovered  little  of  the  true  Babylonian  period 
beyond  massive  walls  and  stray  bricks  inscribed  with  a 
cuneiform  legend  of  King  Ur-Gur.  All  the  mounds  seemed 
literally  filled  with  the  burials  of  a  people  inhabiting  those 
regions  long  after  the  ancient  city  was  covered  with  rubbish 


162  EXl'LORATI(>y\s  I\    HIHLE  LANDS 

and  the  sand  of  the  desert.  He  unearthed  and  examined 
nearly  a  hundred  sHpper-shaped  clay  coffins  similar  to  those 
which  Loftus  had  recently  sent  from  Warka  to  Kngland. 
Frequently  thev  contained  small  cups  and  vases  with  black- 
ish deposits  of  unknown  liquids  and  crumbling  remains  of 
dates  and  bones,  occasionally  a  few  beads  and  engraved 
stones,  but  in  no  case  ornaments  of  gold  and  silver. 

Somewhat  disheartened  bv  this  lack  of  success  which 
ev^erywhere  characterized  his  brief  and  superficial  work 
among  the  Babylonian  ruins,  differing  from  those  in  Assy- 
ria by  the  natural  conditions  of  the  soil,  their  long  and 
varied  occupation  and  the  peculiarity  of  the  material  em- 
ployed in  constructing  palaces  and  other  large  edifices, 
Layard's  opinion  of  the  character  of  the  mounds  examined 
was  naturally  faultv  and  colored  bv  his  unfortunate  expe- 
rience. "  On  the  whole  I  am  much  inclined  to  question 
whether  extensive  excavations  carried  on  at  Niffer  would 
produce  any  verv  important  or  interesting  results,"  was  the 
verdict  of  the  great  explorer  at  the  middle  of  the  last  century. 
*'  More  than  sixty  thousand  cuneiform  tablets  so  far  rescued 
from  the  archives  of  Nippur,  temple  library  definitely  located, 
and  a  large  pre-Sargonic  gate  discovered  below  the  desert," 
was  another  message  which  fifty  years  later  the  present  w-riter 
could  despatch  to  the  committee  of  the  Philadelphia  expe- 
dition trom  the  same  mounds  of  Nuffar.  In  consequence 
of  the  state  of  anarchv  which  prevailed  everywhere  in  Babv- 
lonia,  and  influenced  by  what  has  been  stated  above,  Lavard 
abandoned  his  original  plan  of  visiting  and  exploring  the 
ruins  of  Warka.  His  physical  condition  had  also  suffered 
considerably  during  his  brief  stav  among  the  'Afej.  The 
dampness  of  the  soil  and  the  unwholesome  air  of  the  sur- 
rounding marshes  had  brought  on  a  severe  attack  of  pleurisy 
and  fever.  It  was  therefore  with  a  feeling  of  joy  and  relief 
that  soon  after  the  arrival  of  Rassam,  who  had  just  recovered 
from  his  long  and  severe  illness  at  Baghdad,  Lavard  quitted 


iJilUya    V.iiii   LESTlllY:   ASSYRIA   Ay D    BAHYLOSIA       lUo 

the  unhospitable  and  malarious  regions  around  XufFar  for- 
ever. 

We  cannot  close  the  briet  description  ot  Lavard's  fruitless 
efforts  in  Babylonia  without  quoting  a  remark  which,  on  the 
authority  of  Fresnel/  he  is  said  to  have  made  to  his  Eng- 
lish friends  after  his  return  to  Baghdad.  "  There  will  be 
nothing  to  be  hoped  for  from  the  site  of  Babylon  except 
with  a  parliamentary  vote  for  ^'25,000  (  =  $1 '25,000),  and  if 
ever  this  sum  should  be  voted,  I  would  solicit  the  favor 
of  not  being  charged  with  its  application." 

THE      FRENCH      EXPEDITION      UNDER      FRESNEL,    OPPERT      AND 

THOMAS 

The  continued  activity  of  the  English  explorers  among 
the  ruins  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  the  encouraging  news 
of  the  results  of  Loftus'  first  tentative  work  at  Warka,  and 
the  general  conviction  of  European  scholars  that  the  kings 
of  Babylon  must  haye  left  similar  and  even  earlier  monu- 
ments than  those  excavated  bv  Botta  and  Layard  in  the 
Assvrian  mounds  moved  the  French  government  to  a  de- 
cisive step.  In  August,  1851,  Leon  Faucher,  then  minister 
of  the  interior,  laid  a  plan  for  the  organization  of  "  a  scien- 
tific and  artistic  expedition  to  Mesopotamia  and  Media  " 
before  the  National  Assembly,  accompanied  by  the  urgent 
request  for  a  credit  of  70,000  francs  (=514,000).  The  neces- 
sary permission  was  soon  granted.  On  October  i,  the 
members  of  the  expedition  left  Paris,  and  Marseilles  eight 
days  later.  Fulgence  Fresnel,  formerly  French  consul  at 
Jidda  and  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  language  and 
manners  of  the  Arabs,  was  the  director,  ablv  assisted  by 
Jules  Oppert  as  Assvriologist,  a  voung  naturalized  German 
scholar  of  great  talents  and  independence  of  judgment,  and 
Felix  Thomas  as  architect. 

^  In  Journal  Asiatique,  Series  v.,  vol.  vi.   (^1856),  p.  548. 


164  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Adverse  circumstances  and  unavoidable  delays  kept  the 
members  of  the  expedition  three  months  on  their  way  from 
France  to  Alexandretta,  a  time  which  they  employed  to  the 
best  of  their  ability  in  examining  the  ancient  remains  at 
Malta,  Alexandria,  Baalbek,  and  the  Nahr  el-Kelb  above 
Beirut.  With  forty  mules  they  finally  left  Aleppo,  and 
after  an  interesting  journey  via  Diarbekr,  Mardin,  and 
Nisibin,  on  March  i,  1852,  reached  Mosul,  where  Victor 
Place  had  succeeded  Botta  as  vice-consul  and  archaeological 
representative  of  France,  while  Layard,  having  finished  his 
second  successful  campaign  at  Ooyunjuk,  had  returned  to 
F.urope  in  the  previous  year.  The  very  next  day  after 
their  arrival  on  this  historical  ground  the  enthusiastic  French 
commission  visited  Place  at  Khorsabad,  who  had  but  recently 
commenced  his  operations  there.  For  three  weeks  they 
remained  at  Mosul,  occupying  themselves  with  a  study  ot 
the  history  of  the  city,  examining  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river,  taking  squeezes,  copying  cunei- 
form inscriptions,  and  preparing  themselves  in  many  other 
ways  for  their  impending  task  at  Babvlon.  As  soon  as  their 
large  raft  of  three  hundred  goat-skins  was  finished,  they 
embarked  and  descended  the  Tigris,  arriving  at  Baghdad 
five  days  later. 

As  we  have  seen  above  in  connection  with  Lavard's  visit 
to  Babylonia,  there  prevailed  at  the  middle  ot  the  last 
century  a  general  state  of  anarchy  in  the  northern  part  of 
that  country.  Large  parties  of  roaming  Arabs,  defying  the 
authority  of  the  Turkish  governor,  were  constantly  plunder- 
ing pilgrims  and  caravans,  and  even  made  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Baghdad  very  unsafe.  The  French  expedition 
was  not  slow  in  recognizing  its  unfavorable  position.  Men 
like  Rawlinson,  who  were  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
country  and  its  inhabitants,  advised  the  three  members 
strongly  to  devote  their  first  attention  rather  to  the  Median 
ruins,  Oppert  himself   proposing   to  explore    the    site   of 


DURING  lOTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      165 

ancient  Ecbatana.  But  the  cool  political  relations  then  exist- 
ing between  France  and  Persia  seemed  to  Fresnel  a  serious 
obstacle  to  any  successful  work  in  that  direction.  After  a 
repeated  discussion  of  the  whole  situation,  it  was  decided 
to  remain  at  Baghdad,  waiting  for  the  first  opportunity  to 
proceed  to  Hilla. 

This  decision  did  not  turn  out  to  be  very  wise ;  for  it 
soon  became  evident  that  the  dangers  had  been  greatly 
exaggerated,  in  order  to  keep  the  expedition  from  the  ruins. 
Over  three  months  the  members  were  thus  practically  shut 
up  within  the  walls  of  the  city.^  Spring  passed  away,  and 
it  was  summer  when  a  foolish  rumor  of  the  discovery  of 
the  golden  statue  of  Nebuchadrezzar  at  Babylon,  which 
spread  rapidly  all  over  Asia  Minor,  finding  its  way  even  into 
the  American  papers,  finally  roused  Fresnel  to  new  activity. 
In  the  company  of  two  regiments  of  soldiers,  who  happened 
to  leave  for  Hilla,  the  French  expedition  quitted  Baghdad, 
established  its  headquarters  atjumjuma"  or  Jimjime,  and 
began  actual  excavations  at  the  Qasr  on  July  15,  1852. 

The  commencement  of  their  work  was  most  discouraging. 
The  mass  of  masonry  and  rubbish  to  be  removed  was 
enormous  and  far  beyond  the  time  and  means  at  their  dis- 
posal. Owing  to  the  great  danger  connected  with  cutting 
trenches  into  the  loose  fragments,  they  had  to  confine  their 
labors  to  certain  sections  of  the  large  ruin.  The  results, 
accordingly,  were  as  modest  as  possible.  Like  Layard, 
they  found  the  ordinary  bricks  inscribed  with  the  well- 
known  legend  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  of  which   Oppert  made 

^  Shortly  before  their  final  departure  for  Babylon,  Oppert  and  Thomas  made 
a  brief  excursion  by  water  to  the  ruins  of  Ctesiphon  and  Seleucia  ( fune  2^), 
and  also  paid  a  visit  to  Kadhimen,  a  little  above  Baghdad. 

^  While  in  his  recent  publication,  Jm  Euphrat  U7id am  Tigris  (p.  37  ),  Sa- 
chau  regards  ^m^uma  as  the  original  word,  Oppert  ( Expeditiofi  en  Meso- 
potamie,  vol.  i.,  p.  141),  following  Rich  (comp.  p.  30,  above)  and  the 
Turkish  geographer  (Rich's  "Collected  Memoirs,"  p.  61),  retained  Jum- 
juma,  meaning  "Skull,  Calvarv." 
13 


1«3(J  KXl'LORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

the  best  hy  showing  that  nearly  forty  different  stamps  had 
been  employed  in  their  manufacture.  They  gathered  a 
large  number  of  varnished  tiles  representing  portions  of 
men,  animals,  plants,  ornaments,  and  cuneiform  characters, 
as  often  noticed  before,  and  they  discovered  even  some  frag- 
ments of  a  barrel  cylinder  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  a  duplicate 
of  the  complete  cylinder  published  by  Rich. 

Of  no  greater  importance  were  the  excavations  conducted 
in  Tell  'Omran  ibn  'All  (to  the  south  of  the  Qasr),  which 
Oppert  firmly  believed  to  represent  the  site  of  the  famous 
hanging  gardens,  and  which  he  examined  alone,  as  his  two 
companions  Fresnel  and  Thomas  had  fallen  ill.  He  showed 
that  the  whole  upper  part  of  the  ruin  contained  tombs  of 
a  very  late  period.  They  were  particularly  numerous  at 
the  extreme  ends  and  in  the  ravines  of  the  mound,  but  in 
no  case  were  found  at  any  great  depth  in  the  centre,  which 
contained  many  inscribed  bricks  of  Nebuchadrezzar.  These 
tombs  clearly  betrayed  their  Parthian  origin.  They  were 
generally  constructed  in  the  form  of  cof^ns  of  Babylonian 
bricks,  which  sometimes  bore  cuneiform  inscriptions  of 
Esarhaddon,  Nebuchadrezzar,  Neriglissar,  and  Nabonidos. 
Though  for  the  greater  part  previously  pillaged,  these  burial 
places  yielded  a  quantitv  of  smaller  antiquities,  such  as 
terra-cotta  vases,  simple  and  ornamented,  clay  figurines 
and  plavthings,  glass  vessels,  instruments  in  copper  and 
iron,  and  a  few  gold  objects.  As  the  lower  strata,  apparently 
concealing  structures  from  the  time  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  could 
not  be  examined  satisfactorily,  unfortunatelv  no  definite  in- 
formation vyas  obtained  as  to  the  character  of  the  large 
edifice  which  once  occupied  this  prominent  site.  Oppert's 
theory  as  set  forth  above,  and  defended  bv  him  w'ith  much 
vigor,  has  recently  been  proved  by  Dr.  Koldewey's  researches 
to  be  erroneous. 

The  most  imposing  mound  of  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
metropolis  is  Babil,  situated  at  the  extreme  northern  end  of 


DUIUXa   llt'/i   CESTURY:    ASSYRIA    AXU    HAHYLOMA       lt)7 

the  vast  complex.  Its  summit,  forming  an  irregular  plateau 
of  considerable  extent,  had  been  described  by  Rich,  Buck- 
ingham, Porter  and  other  earlier  explorers  as  covered  with 
numerous  remains  of  buildings.  When  Oppert  examined 
this  site,  all  these  walls  had  disappeared  under  the  industrious 
hands  of  the  Arab  brick-diggers,  who  had  begun  to  start 
excavations  even  in  the  interior  of  the  enormous  tumulus. 
Since  then    Babil   has  again   completely  changed  its  aspect. 


Babil,  South-East  Face,  as  it  appeared  in  1S53 

so  that  if  three  pictures  of  the  same  mound  taken  at  the 
beginning,  middle  and  end  of  the  last  century  were  placed 
alongside  of  one  another,^  nobodv  would  recognize  one  and 
the  same  ruin  in  them.  The  French  excavations  under- 
taken on  a  very  limited  scale  at  the  top  and  base  of  this  mound 
brought  to  light  only  the  common  bricks  and  fragments 
of  stone  and  glass  and  part  of  a  Greek  inscription,  without 
furnishing  any  clue  as  to  the  building  which  originally  stood 
here.      Interpreting  the  classical  writers  in   the  light  of  his 

'  Comp.  Rich's  sketch  of  181  i  (see  page  39,  above)  with  that  made 
by  the  French  architect  Thomas  in  185^,  and  reproduced  on  the  present 
page. 


168  j'jxrLon.iTioxs  in  bible  lands 

own  theories  concerning  the  topography  of  Babylon,  Oppert 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  Babil  represents  the  ruins  of 
the  pyramid  called  by  Strabo  the  "  Sepulchre  of  Bel,"  which 
according  to  his  view  was  a  building  entirely  distinct  from 
the  "  Temple  of  Bel  "  with  its  stage-tower. 

Considerable  time  was  devoted  to  tracing  the  ancient 
quay  of  the  river  and  the  different  walls  of  the  city.  Fully 
convinced  that  the  capital  of  Nebuchadrezzar  was  about 
twenty-five  times  as  large  as  the  ancient  city  of  Babylon^ 
(previous  to  the  fall  of  Nineveh),  and  that  the  latter  was 
reserved  exclusively  for  the  roval  quarter  under  the  kings 
of  the  Neo-Babvlonian  dvnasty,  Oppert  followed  Bucking- 
ham's example  and  included  El-Birs  and  El-Ohemir  in  the 
enormous  territory  of  his  "  Greater  Babylon."  He  ex- 
amined these  two  extreme  quarters  and  the  territory  lying 
between  them  personally,  supplementing  or  correcting  the 
statements  of  his  predecessors  in  certain  details.  While 
himself  occupied  with  the  excavations  at  'Omran  ibn  'Ali, 
he  even  ordered  a  few  trenches  to  be  cut  in  Tell  Ibrahim  el- 
Khalil,  a  large  mound  adjoining  El-Birs,  and  with  the  latter 
forming  the  principal  ruins  of  an  ancient  city.  The  finds 
were  insignificant,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  dated  tablet 
found  in  a  tomb  and  bearing  the  name  of  the  place,  Barsip, 
at  the  end.  In  the  light  of  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson's  funda- 
mental discoveries  at  the  Birs  made  a  few  vears  later,  but 
published  several  years  before  Oppert's  work  appeared, 
this  document,  though  as  a  stray  tablet  of  little  importance 
for  the  whole  question  in  itself,  could  be  claimed  as  the  first 
cuneiform  witness  in  support  of  the  proposed  identification 
of  these    ruins   with   ancient    Borsippa."      Having   once  set 

^  According  to  Oppert,  the  great  outer  wall  of  Babylon  enclosed  a  territorv 
as  large  as  the  whole  department  of  the  Seine,  or  fifteen  times  as  large  as  the 
city  of  Paris  in  1859,  or  seven  times  the  extent  of  Paris  in  i860.  Comp. 
Oppert,  /.  r. ,  vol.  i.,  p.  234. 

"^    Comp.  Oppert,  /.  c,  vol.  i.,  p.   204. 


DURING  I'JTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      1G9 

forth  his  theory  on  the  enormous  extent  of  the  city  of 
Babylon  and  having  failed  to  find  any  trace  of  Herodotus' 
"  Temple  of  Belus  "  among  the  ruins  on  the  left  side  of  the 
Euphrates,  it  was  only  natural  that  with  most  of  the  former 
travellers  Oppert  should  decide  upon  the  gigantic  remains 
of  the  tower  of  Borsippa  as  the  ruins  of  that  great  sanctuary. 

In  October,  1852,  Fresnel  and  Oppert  excavated  for  a 
week  at  the  group  of  mounds  generallv  called  El-Ohemir, 
and  including  the  tumulus  of  El-Khazna  ("  The  Treasure  "), 
El-Bandar  ("The  Harbor  ")  and  a  number  of  lower  eleva- 
tions, several  hours  to  the  east  of  Babylon,  near  the  old  bed 
of  the  Shatt  en-Nil.  They  uncovered  a  brick  pavement  of 
Nebuchadrezzar  close  by  El-Ohemir,  and  a  piece  of  basalt 
bearing  an  archaic  cuneiform  inscription  with  many  smaller 
antiquities  in  the  other  two  principal  mounds  just  men- 
tioned. The  identification  of  this  whole  group  "with  one 
of  the  two  cities  of  Cuthah  "  referred  to  by  Arab  writers  was 
proposed  by  Oppert,  but  cannot  be  accepted.  For  the 
brick  found  and  published  by  Ker  Porter  says  clearly  that 
Zamama,  the  chief  deity  of  Kish,  had  his  sanctuary,  E-?ne-te- 
ur-sag-ga^  there,^  while  the  god  ot  Cuthah  was  Nergal. 

The  French  explorers  worked  at  Babylon  and  its  envi- 
ronment for  almost  two  years,  extending  their  topographical 
researches  on  the  west  side  of  the  Euphrates  as  far  as  Kerbela 
and  Kefil,  and  locating  and  briefly  describing  a  number  of 
Babvlonian  and  Mohammedan  ruins  previously  unknown. 
At  the  beginning  of  Februarv,  1854,  after  a  visit  to  the 
ruins  of 'Aqarquf,  Oppert  finally  left  Babvlonia,  while  Fres- 
nel  remained  in  Baghdad  until  his  early  death  in  November, 
1855.  The  former  returned  to  France  bv  wav  of  Mosul, 
where  in  the  company  of  Victor  Place  he  devoted  six  weeks 
to  a  thorough  study  of  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  and  Khorsabad, 
and  their  exposed  monuments,  manv  of  which  he  could 
decipher  at  the  places  of  their  discoverv  before  they  were 
^   Comp.  p.  49,  above,  with  ii.  R.  50,   12. 


170  KXI'LOUATIOS'S    IN    lilHLK   L.\M)S 

removed  to  luirope.  On  July  i,  1H54,  Oppert  arrived  at 
Paris  alone  with  his  notes  and  plans  and  a  few  antiquities, 
waiting  for  the  bulk  of  the  results  of  his  expedition,  which 
had  been  ordered  to  be  sent  home  by  a  French  boat  from 
Basra.  But  unfortunately  they  never  reached  their  desti- 
nation. It  was  about  a  year  later  when  Oppert,  while  in 
London,  learned  the  first  news  of  the  disaster  from  Sir 
Henry  Layard.  All  the  collections  excavated  and  purchased, 
including  even  the  valuable  marble  vase  of  Naram-Sin  (about 
3750  B.  c),  the  first  and  for  a  long  while  the  only  monu- 
ment of  the  ancient  Sargonides  discovered,  went  down  in 
the  muddy  waters  of  the  Tigris,  a  few  miles  above  its  junc- 
tion with  the  Kuphrates,  on  May  23,  1855. 

It  was  a  long  series  of  difficulties  and  adverse  circum- 
stances which  the  French  expedition  had  to  encounter  trom 
the  beginning  to  the  end.  Owing  to  the  very  limited  means 
at  their  disposal,  Fresnel  and  Oppert  had  not  been  able  to 
do  much  more  than  to  scratch  the  surface  ot  the  vast  mounds, 
without  contributing  anything  of  importance  to  our  know- 
ledge of  the  ancient  topography  of  Nebuchadrezzar's  me- 
tropolis. "  The  great  city  of  Babylon  "  was  practically  still 
unexplored  when  the  French  expedition  quitted  the  ruins. 
But  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  to  the  contrary, 
scientific  results  were  by  no  means  lacking.  In  a  general 
way  first  communicated  by  Fresnel  in  the  Journal  Asiati- 
que^  they  were  methodically  and  neatly  set  forth  by  Oppert, 
the  real  soul  of  the  whole  undertaking,  in  a  work  of  two 
volumes,^  illustrated    by  a  number   of  sketches   from   the 

^  Comp.  Fresnel's  two  letters  to  J.  Mohl,  published  in  the  Journal  Asia- 
ti^ue,SQTksv.,  vol.  i,  (1853),  pp.  485-548,  dated  Hilla,  December,  1852, 
and  continued  in  vol.  ii.  (1853),  pp.  5-78;  and  vol.  vi.  (1856),  pp. 
525-548,  dated  Hilla,  end  of  June,   1853. 

■■^  Authorized  by  ministerial  order  in  1856,  it  appeared  under  the  title 
Expedition  Scientifique  en  Mesopotamie,  two  volumes,  Paris,  vol.  ii.  (pub- 
lished first),   1859:    "  Decipherment  of  the  Cuneiform   Inscriptions"  (part 


DUEING  lOTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BAliVLOXIA      171 

hand  of  Thomas/  This  publication,  written  by  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  young  Assyriological  science,  will  always 
hold  a  prominent  place  in  the  history  of  exploration,  alike 
for  the  manifold  information  it  conveys  on  various  archaeolo- 
gical topics,  for  the  boldness  with  which  our  author  attacks 
difficult  topographical  problems,  and  above  all  for  the 
skill  and  brilliancy  with  which  Oppert  —  in  many  cases 
for  the  first  time —  translates  and  analyzes  the  historical  in- 
scriptions from  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  palaces,  thus  con- 
tributing essentially  to  the  restoration  of  the  eventful  past 
of  two  powerful  nations, 

J.    E.    TAYLOR 

At  the  beginning  of  1854,  when  Petermann,  of  Berlin, 
was  studying  the  language  and  life  of  the  Sabean  Christians 
at  Siaq  esh-Shivukh,  and  Loftus  was  engaged  at  Warka  for 
the  "  Assyrian  Excavation  Fund,"  at  the  request  of  Sir 
Henry  Rawlinson  excavations  were  also  undertaken  at 
Muqayyar  for  the  British  Museum  by  J.  E.  Taylor,  Her 
Majesty's  Vice-Consul  at  Basra.  The  ruins  of  Muqayyar^" 
("Bitumined"  or  "Cemented  with  Bitumen")  are  situated 
upon  a  slight  elevation  six  to  seven  miles  southwest  from 
the  modern  town  of  Nasriye.  The  country  all  about  is 
so  low  that  frequently  during  the  annual  flood  of  the  Eu- 
phrates, /.  e.,  from  March  till  June  or  July,  the  ruins  form 
practically  an   island  in   the  midst  of  a   large  marsh,  unap- 

iii.  including  inscriptions  discovered  by  the  French  expedition)  ;  vol.  i, 
1863:  **  Report  of  the  Journey  and  Results  of  the  Expedition  "  (pp.  287— 
357  containing  a  description  of  Assyrian  ruins,  illustrated  by  a  translation  of 
the  largest  and  most  important  inscriptions  then  discovered). 

^  Published  as  part  of  an  Atlas  (21  plates)  accompanving  Oppert's  twO' 
volumes. 

^  To-day  generally  pronounced  Mugaser  bv  the  Arabs.  The  various 
writers,  with  more  or  less  success  endeavoring  to  reproduce  the  name  as  it 
was  heard  by  them,  write  it  in  manv  different  ways,  Muqueijcr,  Mughyer, 
Mugeyer,  Mughair,  Megheyer,  Meghaii?-,   JJmghyer,   Urngheir,  etc. 


172 


L'XI'LORATIOys   L\    lilHLE  LANDS 


proachable  on  any  side  except  in  boats.  The  ruins  are  then 
sometimes  occupied  as  a  stronghold  by  the  Dhafir,  a  lawless 
tribe  of  the  desert,  which  at  certain  seasons  extends  its 
camping-grounds  far  into  the  districts  of  the  Jezire.  Trav- 
ellers who  in  recent  years  desired  to  visit  Muqavyar  were 
often  obliged  to  do  so  at  their  own  risk/  the  Turkish 
officials  not  only  declining  a  military  escort,  but  demanding 
even  a  written  declaration  in  which  it  is  stated  that  the 
person  in  question  does  not  hold  the  Ottoman  government 

responsible  tor  any 


^  <^  /''/'■'■/■' 


accident  that  may 
befall  him  in  a  re- 
gion outside  of  their 
real  jurisdiction. 

The  ruins  of  Mu- 
qavvar  consist  of  a 
series  of  low  mounds 
ot  oval  form,  their 
whole  circumference 
measuring  nearly 
j;ooo  yards,  and 
their  largest  diame- 
ter from  north  to 
south  a  little  over 
looovards.  Previ- 
ous to  Taylor,  they 
had  been  examined 
by  Pietrodella  Valle 
(1625),  who  took  one  of  the  inscribed  bricks  with  him,  and 

^  A  French  professor  from  Bordeaux,  who  had  been  mv  guest  at  Nuffar  in 
March,  1900,  and  whom  I  had  advised  to  visit  Muqavyar  also,  reported  the 
same  experience  to  me.  The  Dhahr  allowed  him  onlv  to  walk  around  the  ruins 
hurriedly.  Since  the  fall  of  1900,  after  the  great  troubles  among  the  Arabs 
of  those  regions  and  to  the  south  of  them  have  been  settled  temporarily,  con- 
ditions have  improved  somewhat. 


^ , 


Plan  of  the  Ruins  of  Muqavyar 

{Ur  of  the  ChalJees) 


DURING   V.yi'i   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND    BABYLONIA      173 

gathered  some  inscribed  seal  cylinders  on  the  surface/  by 
Baillie  Fraser  (1835),"  and  by  Loftus  (1850),  who  again 
visited  them  shortly  before  he  quitted  Babylonia  forever 
(1854).'''  But  our  real  knowledge  of  the  character  and  con- 
tents of  the  ruins  is  based  upon  the  excavations  of  the  first- 
named  explorer,  who  worked  there  in  the  beginning  of 
1854,  and  who  opened  a  few  additional  trenches,  in  con- 
nection with  a  second  visit,  about  a  year  later. 

Near  the  north  end  of  the  mounds  stands  the  principal 
building  of  the  whole  site,  about  seventv  feet  high.  It  is  a 
two-storied  structure  having  the  plan  of  a  right-angled  par- 
allelogram, the  largest  sides  of  which  are  the  northeast  and 
southwest,  being  each  198  feet  long,  while  the  others  mea- 
sure only  133  feet.  As  in  all  other  similar  Babvlonian 
buildings,  one  angle  points  almost  due  north.  The  lower 
story,  twenty-seven  feet  high,  is  supported  by  strong  but- 
tresses ;  the  upper  story,  receding  from  thirty  to  forty-seven 
feet  from  the  edge  of  the  first,  is  fourteen  feet  high,  sur- 
mounted by  about  five  feet  of  brick  rubbish.  The  ascent 
to  this  remarkable  stage-tower,  perforated  with  numerous 
air-holes,  like  those  at  'Aqarquf  and  El-Birs,  was  on  the 
northeast  side.  By  driving  a  tunnel  into  the  very  heart  of 
the  mound,  Taylor  convinced  himself  first  that  "  the  whole 
building  was  built  of  sun-dried  bricks   in   the  centre,  with  a 

■^  Pietro  della  Valle  ( comp.  p.  17,  above)  not  onlvgave  the  correct  etymo- 
logy o\  the  name  ot  the  ruins,  but  recognized  even  the  peculiar  signs  on  the 
bricks  and  seal  cylinders  as  unbekatjnte  und  uhralte  Buchstabe?i.  Ufiter 
a?ideren  Buchstaben  habe  ich  iher  zzveen  an  vielen  Orten  tvahrgefionimen, 
worunter  der  eine  zuie  eine  liegetide  Pyramid  odcr  Flamm-sdule  ([];>>),  der 
andere  aber  zvie  ein  Stern  mit  acht  Strahlen  (-)^)  —  the  sign  for  "  God  " 
—  gezvest.  Comp.  the  German  translation  of  his  work,  Reiss-Beschreibung, 
Geneva,   1674,  P^i'f  4>  ?•   184. 

^  Comp.  his  "Travels  in  Koordistan,  Mesopotamia,"  etc.,  vol.  ii.,  pp. 
90-94,  and  p.  5  5,  above. 

'  "Travels  and  Researches  in  Chalda^a  and  Susiana,"  pp.  127-135. 
Comp.,  also,  p.   141,  above. 


174  KXl'LOHAriONS    IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

thick  coating  of  massive,  partially  burnt  bricks  of  a  light  red 
color  with  layers  of  reeds  between  them,  the  whole  to  the 
thickness  often  feet  being  cased  by  a  wall  of  inscribed  kiln- 
burnt  bricks."  Next  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  four 
corners.  While  excavating  the  southwest  corner  of  the 
upper  story,  he  found,  six  feet  below  the  surface,  a  perfect 
inscribed  clay  cylinder,  standing  in  a  niche  formed  by  the 
omission  of  one  of  the  bricks  in  the  layer.  A  similar  cylin- 
der having  been  discovered  in  the  northwest  corner,  the 
fortunate  explorer  naturally  concluded  that  corresponding 
objects  W'ould  be  found  in  the  remaining  two  corners.  A 
shaft  sunk  in  each  of  them  proved  his  theory  to  be  correct, 
at  the  same  time  bringing  out  the  important  fact  that  the 
commemorative  cylinders  of  the  builders  or  restorers  of 
Babylonian  temples  and  palaces  were  generally  deposited 
in  the  four  corners.  Fragments  of  another  larger  and 
even  more  interesting  barrel  cylinder  were  rescued  from  the 
same  mound  and  from  a  lower  elevation  immediately  north 
of  it. 

The  massive  structure  thus  examined  by  Taylor  turned 
out  to  be  the  famous  temple  of  the  Moon-god  Sin.^  It  is 
"  the  only  example  of  a  Babylonian  temple  remaining  in 
good  preservation  not  wholly  covered  by  rubbish."  ^  From 
the  fine  barrel  cylinders  and  the  large  inscribed  bricks  dif- 
fering as  to  size  and  inscription  in  the  two  stories,  Rawlin- 
son  established  soon  afterwards  that  the  site  of  Muqayyar 
represents  the  Biblical  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  (Gen.  11:28; 
15:7).  The  temple  was  constructed  by  King  Ur-Gur 
(about  2700  B.  c),  repaired  by  his  son  Dungi,  and  more 
than  2000  years  later  was  for  the  last  time  restored  by  the 
last  king  of  Babylon,  Nabuna'id  (Nabonidos),  who  depos- 
ited the  account  of  his  work  inscribed  upon  these  clay  cyl- 
inders in  the  corners  of  the  stage-tower. 

*  After  him  Mount  Sinai  is  called,  the  name  meaning  "  Sacred  to  Sin.'* 
^  Comp.  Loftus,  /.  r.,  p.   128. 


DURING   lO'it  CENTURY:    ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      175 

The  discovery  of  these  documents  was  of  the  greatest 
importance  for  Biblical  history  in  another  way.  The  in- 
scriptions upon  all  of  them  closed  with  a  poetical  prayer  for 
the  life  of  the  king's  oldest  son,  Bel-shar-usur,  who  is  no 
other  than   the  Biblical   Belshazzar  (Dan.  5),  appointed  by 


Ruins  ot  the  Tt-mple  ot  Sin  at  Muqavyar 

his  father  as  co-regent,  defeated  by  Cyrus  near  Opis,  and 
murdered  soon  after  the  conquest  of  Babylon. 

In  a  small  hill  close  to  the  southeast  corner  of  the  large 
ruin  Taylor  unearthed  a  regular  house  built  of  large  inscribed 
bricks  upon  a  platform  of  sun-dried  bricks.  Some  of  the 
burnt  bricks  were  remarkably  fine,  having  a  thin  coating 
of  enamel  or  gypsum  on  which  the  cuneiform  characters 
had  been  stamped,  —  the  first  example  of  this  kind  known. 
From  the  northwest  corner  of  the  mud  wall  he  obtained  a 
small  black  stone  inscribed  on  both  sides,  from  which  it  can 
be  inferred  that  the  building  dates  back  to  the  third  millen- 
nium. 

At  a  depth  considerably  below  this  building,  he  came 
upon  a  pavement  consisting  of  bricks  fourteen  inches  long, 
eight  and  a  half  wide,  and  three  and  a  half  thick,  "  most  of 


ITil 


EXPLORATIoys    I\    lilliLE  LANDS 


them  having  the  impressions  of  the  tips  of  two  fingers  at  the 
back  ;  none  were  inscribed,  the  whole  imbedded  in  bitu- 
men." Krom  what  the  present  writer  has  pointed  out  in 
1896  as  a  characteristic  feature  of  the  earhest  Babylonian 
bricks,'  it  is  very  evident  that  here  Taylor  had  reached  the 
pre-Sargonic  period  (about  4000  b.  c). 

He  mentions  other  interesting  bricks  found  upon  the 
same  mound,  which  were  "  painted  red,  and  had  an  inscrip- 
tion over  nearly  the  whole  length  and  breadth  in  a  small 
neat  character,"  while  "on  one  portion  of  them  was  the 
symbol  of  two  crescents,  back  to  back."  But  his  statements 
here  and  in  other  places  are  so  vague  that  our  curiosity  is 
only  raised  without  any  chance  of  being  satisfied. 
J  The  rest  of  the  mounds  of  Muqavyar,  so  far  as  Taylor 
was  able  to  dig  into  them,  seemed  to  represent  a  vast  cem- 
etery   of  the   early   Babylonians,   yielding  clay  cofSns  and 


Clav  Coffin  trom  Muqavvar 

vases  of  different  size  and  shape,  numerous  drains,  and 
many  smaller  objects  in  stone,  metal,  and  clay  valuable  tor 
illustrating  the  life  and  customs  of  the  former  inhabitants, 
especially  those  of  the  later  periods. 

All  around  the  graves  in  the  different   parts   of  the  ruins 

^    Comp.    Hilprecht,  "The  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,"  Series  A,  vol.  i.,  part  2,  p.  45. 


DURING  I'JTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND  BABYLONIA      177 

he  came  across  many  fragments  of  inscribed  cones.  In  the 
long  west  mound  he  found  two  whole  jars  filled  with  clay 
tablets  placed  in  envelopes  of  the  same  material,  and  fre- 
quently bearing  seal  impressions,  in  addition  to  over  thirty 
stray  tablets  and  fragments. 

Notwithstanding  the  insignificant  funds  and  the  short 
time  placed  at  the  disposal  of  our  explorer,  and  notwith- 
standing the  lack  of  a  proper  archaeological  training  so 
seriously  felt  by  himself,  and  through  which  a  large  portion 
of  the  scientific  results  have  been  lost,  Taylor's  patient 
labors  and  attempts  at  disclosing  the  contents  of  Muqayyar 
were  successful  beyond  expectation.  Different  travellers 
have  since  visited  the  ruins,  taking  measurements  and  pick- 
ing up  a  few  objects  here  and  there  on  the  surface  ;  but  they 
all  have  added  practically  nothing  to  our  knowledge  of  those 
mounds,  which  is  derived  exclusively  from  the  reports  of 
Loftus  and  Taylor  written  nearly  fifty  years  ago.  The 
methodical  exploration  of  Muqayyar  and  a  complete  restora- 
tion of  its  history  belong  still  to  the  desirable  things  ex- 
pected from  the  future.  There  is  hope,  however,  that  even 
before  the  German  railroad  line  from  Baghdad  to  Basra  has 
been  constructed,  an  American  expedition  will  start  excava- 
tions at  these  ruins  in  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury.^ Owing  to  the  lawlessness  of  the  Arab  tribes  roaming 
over  that  part  of  the  desert,  and  no  less  to  the  swampy 
condition  of  the  neighborhood  of  Muqayyar  during  the 
annual  inundations,  there  are  peculiar  difficulties  to  be  over- 
come here,  similar  to  those  prevailing  at  Nippur  and  Warka. 
But  with  the  necessary  tact  and  determination  they  can  be 
overcome,  and  the  mounds,  considerably  smaller  in  extent 
than  either  of  the  two  ruins  mentioned,  can  be  thoroughly 

^  According  to  infbriTiation  received  by  cable  from  Dr.  Banks,  the  director 
of  the  planned  Expedition  to  Ur,  at  the  beginning  of  October,  i  90 1 ,  the 
Ottoman  Government  has  declined  to  grant  him  a  firman  for  the  excavation 
ct   Muqavvar. 


178  ExrLouArioNs  ly  bible  lands 

explored  at  an  expense  of  ^200,000  within  a  period  oi 
twenty-five  years.  The  results,  though  scarcely  ever  fur- 
nishing a  document  referring  to  the  life  and  person  of  Abra- 
ham,—  as  has  been  expected,  —  will  doubtless  add  many 
fresh  stones  to  the  rising  building  of  the  early  history  of 
Babylonia. 

Previous  to  his  second  visit  to  Muqayyar,  early  in  1855, 
Taylor  excavated  for  a  few  days  at  two  other  ruins,  called 
Tell  el-Lahm  and  Abu  Shahrain.  The  former  ruin,  con- 
sisting of  two  mounds  of  some  height  surrounded  by  a 
number  of  smaller  ridges  and  elevations,  is  situated  three 
hours  to  the  south  of  Suq  esh-Shiyukh,  near  the  dry  bed  of 
an  ancient  canal,  and  does  not  exceed  half  a  mile  in  circum- 
ference. Nothing  of  especial  interest  was  discovered.  But 
Taylor  exhumed  numerous  coffins  formed  of  two  large  jars 
joined  together  by  a  bitumen  cement,  traced  several  pave- 
ments constructed  of  baked  bricks,  occasionally  bearing  de- 
faced cuneiform  characters,  and  found  a  perfect  clay  tablet, 
so  that  the  Babylonian  origin,  though  not  the  early  name 
of  the  site,  could  be  established  beyond  any  reasonable 
doubt. 

Of  greater  importance  were  Tavlor's  excavations  at  Abu 
Shahrain,  situated  in  the  desert  bevond  the  sandstone  bluffs 
which  separate  it  from  Ur  and  the  vallev  of  the  Euphrates, 
but — strange  to  sav  —  very  generally  placed  wrongly  by 
Assvriologists  on  the  left  side  of  "  the  great  river,"  some- 
where opposite  SQq  esh-Shiyukh,^  though  its  correct  situa- 

^  With  whom  this  error  started  I  do  not  know.  We  find  it  in  Menant, 
Babjlone  et  la  C  ha  Idee  (1875),  ^""^  Delitzsch,  Pt'o  lag  das  Paradies  ? 
(1881) — notwithstanding  Taylor's  very  expHcit  statements  to  the  con- 
trary. George  Rawlinson,  "Five  Great  Monarchies,"  4th  ed.,  London, 
1879,  vol.  ii.,  ("Map  of  Mesopotamia,"  etc.)  places  Abu  Shahrain  cor- 
rectly, on  the  right  side  of  the  river,  but  too  far  to  the  south.  About  where 
Tell  el-Lahm  is  situated  is  Abu  Shahrain,  and  where  he  has  Abii  Shahrain 
is  Tell  el-Lahm.  The  ruins  of  Abu  Shahrain,  situated  as  they  are  in  a  deep 
valley,  cannot  be  seen  from  Muqavvar,  nor  are  thev  identical  with  Nowawis, 


DUIiING  19 T"   CESTURY:   ASSYIUA   AXD  BABYLOXIA      179 

tion  might  have  been  inferred  from  several  cuneiform  pas- 
sages in  which  Kridu  is  mentioned.  "  The  first  aspect  of 
the  mounds  is  that  of  a  ruined  fort,  surrounded  by  high 
walls  with  a  keep  or  tower  at  one  end,"  placed  on  an  emi- 
nence nearly  in  the  centre  of  the  dry  bed  of  an  inland  sea. 
They  are  half  concealed  in  a  deep  vallev  about  fifteen  miles 
wide,  and  onlv  towards  the  north  open  to  the  Euphrates. 
For  the  greater  part  this  depression  is  "  covered  with  a 
nitrous  incrustation,  but  with  here  and  there  a  few  patches 
of  alluvium,  scantily  clothed  with  the  shrubs  and  plants 
peculiar  to  the  desert."  To  the  northwest  and  southeast 
of  the  principal  mounds  are  "  small  low  mounds  full  ol 
graves,  funeral  vases,  and  urns."  Faint  traces  of  an  an- 
cient canal,  six  yards  broad,  were  discovered  at  no  great 
distance  to  the  northwest  of  the  ruins. 

These  latter,  which  are  considerably  smaller  than  those 
of  Muqayyar,  "  rise  abruptlv  from  the  plain,  and  are  not 
encumbered  with  the  masses  of  rubbish  usually  surround- 
ing similar  places."  Consisting  of  a  platform  enclosed  by 
a  sandstone  wall  twenty  feet  high,  the  whole  complex  is 
divided  into  two  parts  of  nearly  equal  extent.  As  in  most 
of  the  larger  Babylonian  ruins  so  far  examined,  the  northern 
part  of  Abu  Shahrain  is  occupied  by  a  pyramidal  tower  ot 
two  stages,  constructed  of  sun-dried  brick  cased  with  a  wall 
of  kiln-burnt  brick,  and  still  about  seventy  feet  high. 

The  summit  of  the  first  stage  of  this  building  is  reached 
by  a  staircase  fifteen  feet  wide  and  seventy  feet  long,  origi- 
nally constructed  of  polished  marble  slabs,  now  scattered  all 
over  the  mound,  and  at  its  foot  flanked  by  two  columns  of 
an  interesting  construction.      An   inclined  road  leads  up  to 

as  assumed  by  Peters  ("Nippur,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  96  and  298,  rf^.)  Scheil's 
recent  statement  concerning  them  (^Recueil,  vol.  xxi.,  p.  126)  evidently 
rests  on  Arab  information.  It  is  correct,  but  only  confirms  facts  better 
known  from  Taylor's  own  accurate  reports,  which,  however,  do  not  seem  to 
have  been  read  carefullv  by  Assvriologists  during  the  last  twenty-five  years. 


180 


EXI'LOUATIOXS   7.V    liHiLK  LANDS 


the  second  stor\ .  "  ]-*ieces  of  agate,  alabaster,  and  marble, 
finely  cut  and  polished,  small  pieces  of  pure  gold,  gold- 
headed  and  plain  copper  nails,  cover  the  ground  about  the 
basement"  of  the  latter  —  sufficient  to  indicate  that  a  small 


I'etiii'li-  Ruin  .;t  .Aim  Shahrain  from  the  South 

but  richly  embellished  sacred  chamber  formerly  crowned  the 
top  of  the  second  stage.  Around  the  whole  tower  there  is 
a  pavement  of  inscribed  baked  brick  placed  upon  a  large 
layer  of  clay  two  feet  thick. 

From  several  trenches  cut  in  various  parts  of  these  re- 
markable mounds,  Taylor  reached  the  startling  conclusion 
that  all  the  ruined  buildings  he  met  with,  including  the 
ponderous  mass  of  the  stage-tower,  rested  on  the  fine  sand 
of  the  desert  confined  by  a  coating  of  sun-dried  brick,  upon 
which  the  above-mentioned  sandstone  wall  rises.  In  con- 
trast to  all  the  other  Babylonian  ruins,  where  natural  stone 
is  almost  entirely  unknown  as  building  material,  we  find 
sandstone  and  granite  and  marble  liberally  employed  in 
Abu  Shahrain,  a  fact  which  illustrates  and  proves  the  cor- 
rectness of  the  theory  that  the  extensive  use  of  clay  in 
ancient  Babylonia  is  due  only  to  the  complete  absence  of 
any  kind  of  stone  in  the  alluvial  ground  of  the  country. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      181 

A  number  of  chambers,  which  the  explorer  excavated, 
yielded  but  little.  But  the  inscribed  bricks  gathered  from 
the  temple  enclosure  told  us  the  important  news  that  the 
city  here  buried  was  Eridu,  sacred  to  the  early  inhabitants 
of  Babylonia  as  the  seat  of  a  famous  oracle  so  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  of  the  third  pre-Christian  mil- 
lennium and  later.  A  peculiar  structure  partly  unearthed  at 
the  south-east  section  of  the  ruins,  the  precise  character 
of  which  has  hitherto  not  been  recognized,  also  testifies  to 
the  great  age  of  the  place.  The  uninscribed  bricks  were 
laid  in  bitumen,  and  by  their  curious  shape  ("  thin  at  both 
ends  and  thick  in  the  middle,  as  in  the  margin,  the  under  part 
perfectly  flat ")  naturally  attracted  the  attention  of  Taylor. 
From  what  we  now  know  about  the  history  of  Babylonian 
brick-making,  it  becomes  evident  that  Taylor  had  hit  a  pre- 
Sargonic  structure  of  about  4000  b.  c,  the  southern  gateway 
of  the  large  temple  complex.  If  instead  of  "  a  few  feet"  he 
had  dug  about  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  on  either  side  along  the 
stone  wall  adjoining  it,  he  probably  would  have  found  an- 
other similar  pair  of  bastions,  thereby  obtaining  the  charac- 
teristic three  divisions  of  a  Sumerian  gateway  with  a  central 
passage  for  beasts  and  chariots  and  two  narrower  side 
entrances,  reached  by  means  of  steps,  for  the  people. 

With  regard  to  portable  finds,  Tavlor's  work  at  Abii 
Shahrain  was  unproductive  of  important  results.  But  the 
discovery  and  brief  description  of  those  large  ruins  and  of 
so  many  inscribed  bricks,  through  which  it  was  possible  to 
restore  the  old  Babylonian  name  of  the  city  buried  there, 
was  in  itself  a  most  valuable  contribution  to  our  knowledge 
of  ancient  comparative  geography,  especially  when  it  is 
remembered  that,  owing  to  the  seclusion  of  the  spot  and  the 
insecurity  of  its  neighborhood,  Abu  Shahrain  has  never  been 
visited  again  by  any  European  or  American  explorer.^ 

^  Taylor's  reports   are   published    in   the    "Journal    of  the   Royal  Asiatic 
Society  of  Great  Britain    and  Ireland,"  vol.   xv.    (1855),  under  the   titles 
14 


182  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


SIR     HENRY    RAWLINSON 


The  first  period  of  Babylonian  excavations  was  well 
brought  to  an  end  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  himself.  For 
a  long  while  the  Birs  (Nimrud)  with  its  high  towering  peak 
had  been  the  one  ruin  above  all  which  he  desired  to  subject 
to  a  more  careful  examination  than  had  been  hitherto  the 
case.  During  the  months  of  September  and  October,  1854, 
shortly  before  he  closed  his  memorable  career  in  the  Orient 
entirelv,  his  desire  could  be  finally  gratified. 

On  behalf  of  the  British  Museum,  he  sent  an  intelli- 
gent young  man,  Joseph  Tonietti,  apothecarv  in  the  Otto- 
man army,  to  the  ruins  of  Birs  with  instructions  to  ascer- 
tain the  general  features  of  the  building  through  a  number 


El-Birs,  Northwest  Face 

of  Specified  trenches,  and  in  particular  to  run  a  trench  along 
the  whole  line  of  one  of  the  walls  "  until  the  angles  were 
turned  at  the  two  corners,  so  as  to  expose  the  complete  face 
of  one  of  the  stages  "  of  which  Rawlinson  had  no  doubt  the 

"Notes  on  the  Ruins  of  Muqeyer,"  pp.  260-276,  and  "Notes  on  Abu 
Shahrain  and  Tel-el-Lahm,"  pp.  404-415. 


DURING   19TII   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      183 

original  building  had  been  formed.  His  orders  were  car- 
ried out  "  with  care  and  judgment "  within  a  little  more 
than  two  months,  when  the  director,  who  had  been  en- 
camped for  ten  days  at  the  foot  of  the  ruins  of  Babylon, 
occupied  with  questions  of  their  topography,  appeared  per- 
sonally on  the  ground,  in  order  to  apply  his  knowledge  and 
critical  discrimination  to  the  partly  exposed  structure. 

Having  satisfied  himself  from  an  inspection  of  the  various 
trenches  in  progress  that  the  outer  wall  of  the  southeastern 
face  of  the  third  stage  had  been  completely  uncovered,  he 
"proceeded  on  the  next  morning  with  a  couple  of  gangs 
of  workmen  to  turn  to  account  the  experience  obtained 
from  the  excavations  of  Qal'at  Shirgat  (in  Assyria)  and 
Muqayyar  (in  Babylonia)  in  searching  for  commemorative 
cylinders.  Accordingly  he  "  placed  a  gang  at  work  upon  each 
of  the  exposed  angles  of  the  third  stage,  directing  them  to 
remove  the  bricks  forming  the  corner  carefully,  one  after  the 
other,"  until  "  they  had  reached  the  tenth  layer  of  brick  above 
the  plinth  at  the  base."  Half  an  hour  later  Rawlinson  was 
summoned  to  the  southern  corner,  where  the  workmen 
had  reached  the  limit  which  he  had  marked  out  for  their 
preliminary  work.  On  reaching  the  spot,  he  was  first 
"occupied  for  a  few  minutes  in  adjusting  a  prismatic  com- 
pass on  the  lowest  brick  now  remaining  of  the  original 
angle,  which  fortunately  projected  a  little,"  and  he  then 
ordered  the  work  to  be  resumed.  The  excitement  which 
immediately  followed  we  describe  better  in  his  own  lan- 
guage. 

"  No  sooner  had  the  next  layer  of  bricks  been  removed 
than  the  workmen  called  out  there  was  a  Khazeneh  \khazna\ , 
or  *  treasure  hole  ; '  that  is,  in  the  corner  at  the  distance 
of  two  bricks  from  the  exterior  surface,  there  was  a  vacant 
space  filled  half  up  with  loose  reddish  sand.  '  Clear  awav 
the  sand,'  I  said,  'and  bring  out  the  cylinder;'  and  as  I 
spoke  the  words,  the  Arab,  groping  with  his   hand  among 


184  EXPLOIiATTONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

the  debris  in  the  hole,  seized  and  held  up  in  triumph  a 
fine  cylinder  of  baked  clay,  in  as  perfect  a  condition  as 
when  it  was  deposited  in  the  artificial  cavity  above  twenty- 
four  centuries  ago.  The  workmen  were  perfectly  bewil- 
dered. They  could  be  heard  whispering  to  each  other  that 
it  was  si/ir,  or  *  magic,'  while  the  greybeard  of  the  party  sig- 
nificantly observed  to  his  companion  that  the  compass, 
which,  as  I  have  mentioned,  I  had  just  before  been  using, 
and  had  accidentally  placed  immediately  above  the  cylinder, 
was  certainly  '  a  wonderful  instrument'  " 

Soon  afterwards  an  exact  duplicate  of  the  cylinder  was 
discovered  near  the  eastern  corner  of  the  same  stage,  while 
a  search  for  the  remaining  cylinders  at  the  northern  and 
western  corners  proved  fruitless,  because  the  greater  portion 
of  the  wall  at  these  angles  had  been  already  broken  away. 
But  from  the  debris  which  had  rolled  down  from  the  upper 
stages,  Rawlinson  gathered  two  more  fragments  of  a  third 
cylinder  with  the  same  inscriptions,  and  a  small  fragment 
of  a  much  larger  new  cylinder.  All  these  documents  are 
commemorative  records  of  the  time  of  Nebuchadrez- 
zar, by  whom  they  were  placed  there  after  his  restoration 
of  the  old  tower  of  Borsippa,  called  E-ur-imin-an-ki^  i.  e.y 
"Temple  of  the  Seven  Directions  (Spheres)  of  Heaven 
and  Earth,"  while  the  last-mentioned  fragment  "  in  some 
detail  contains  a  notice  of  Nebuchadrezzar's  expedition  to 
the  Mediterranean  and  his  conquest  of  the  kings  of  the 
West." 

In  entire  accordance  with  the  peculiar  Babylonian  name 
of  the  tower  which  formed  the  most  conspicuous  part  of  the 
temple  Ezida,  dedicated  to  Nebo,  son  of  Merodach,  were 
Rawlinson's  remarkable  findings  in  the  trenches.  There 
could  not  be  any  doubt  that  the  six  or  seven  stages  of  the 
huge  temple  tower  still  to  be  recognized  had  been  differently 
colored,  and  that  "  the  color  black  for  the  first  stage, ^  red 
^  The  bricks  of  this  stage  are  the  only  ones  laid  in  bitumen,  and  the  face 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      185 

for  the  third,^  and  blue  for  what  seemed  to  be  the  sixth, 
were  precisely  the  colors  which  belonged  to  the  first,  third, 
and  sixth  spheres  of  the  Sabasan  planetary  system  ...  or 
the  colors  which  appertained  to  the  planets  Saturn,  Mars, 
and  Mercury." 

Down  to  the  present  time  the  large  vitrified  masses  of 
brickwork  on  the  top  of  the  Birs  have  given  rise  to  much 
speculation  and  to  the  wildest  theories  concerning  their 
origin,  prominent  among  which  is  the  common  belief  that 
they  are  fragments  of  the  upper  stage  of  the  original  "  Tower 
of  Babel,"  destroyed  by  lightning  from  heaven  (Gen.  1 1 )," 
which  rather  must  have  formed  a  prominent  part  of  Baby- 
lon proper  on  the  other  side  of  the  Euphrates.  While 
examining  these  upright  and  scattered  remains  of  ancient 
walls  on  the  summit  of  the  mound,  the  present  writer,  with 
other  explorers,  often  recognized  the  well  preserved  name 
of  Nebuchadrezzar  on  many  of  the  clearly  defined  bricks 
which  had  undergone  this  vitrification. 

Among  all  the  theories  proposed  to  explain  this  remark- 
able phenomenon  at  such  an  elevation,  that  of  Sir  Henry 
Rawlinson,  though  not  entirely  removing  all  the  difficulties, 
seems  still  to  be  the  most  plausible.  He  assumes  that  pre- 
vious to  the  erection  of  the  culminating  stage,  of  which 
the  remains  exist  in  the  solid  pile  at  the  summit,  by  the 
action  of  fierce  and  continued  heat  the  bricks  of  the  second 
highest  stage  of  the  temple  were  artificially  vitrified,  in  order 
to  give  them  the  color  of  the  corresponding  sphere  of  Mer- 
cury by  the  solid  mass  of  dark  blue  slag  thus  obtained.  And 
"it  was  owing  to  the  accidental  use  of  an  imperishable  mate- 
rial  like  slag  so  near  the  summit  of  the  Birs,  that  we  are 

of  the  exposed  southeastern  wall  "  to  a  depth  of  half  an  inch  was  coated 
with  the  same  material,  so  as  to  give  it  a  jet-black  appearance." 

1  Built  of  bricks  of  red  clay  and  only  half  burned.  They  were  laid  in 
crude  red  clay,  mixed  up  with  chopped  straw. 

^  Comp.,  e.  g.,  Ker  Porter,  pp.  46,  se^.,  above. 


186  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

indebted  for  the  solitary  preservation  of  this  one  building 
among  the  many  hundreds  of  not  inferior  temples  which 
once  studded  the  surface  of  Babylonia." 

After  a  careful  study  of  all  the  details  offered  by  the 
trenches,  the  inscriptions,  and  other  outside  facts,  Rawlinson 
gave  a  tentative  picture  of  the  original  design  of  the  temple 
at  Borsippa  :  "  Upon  a  platform  of  crude  brick,  raised  a  few 
feet  above  the  alluvial  plain,  and  belonging  to  a  temple 
which  was  erected  probably  in  the  remotest  antiquity  by 
one  of  the  primitive  Babylonian  kings,  Nebuchadrezzar, 
towards  the  close  of  his  reign,  must  have  rebuilt  seven  dis- 
tinct stages,  one  upon  the  other,  symbolical  of  the  concen- 
tric circles  of  the  seven  spheres,  and  each  colored  with  the 
peculiar  tint  which  belonged  to  the  ruling  planet."  The 
first  stage  was  black,  sacred  to  Saturn  ;  the  second  red- 
brown  or  orange,  sacred  to  Jupiter  ;  the  third,  red,  belonged 
to  Mars  ;  the  fourth,  gold-plated,  to  the  sun  ;  the  fifth,  yel- 
lowish white,  to  Venus  ;  the  sixth,  dark  blue,  to  Mercury 
(Nebo)  ;  the  seventh,  silver-plated,  to  the  moon.  The 
entrance  to  this  grand  structure  was  on  the  northeast  side, 
as  in  the  temple  of  Sin  at  Ur.  The  lowest  stage  was  two 
hundred  and  seventv-two  feet  square,  and  probably  twenty- 
six  feet  high.  As  the  successive  stages  rose  to  the  height 
of  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  feet,  thev  gradually  receded, 
becoming  smaller  and  smaller,  the  seventh  stage  being  occu- 
pied by  the  richly  decorated  shrine  of  the  god  Nabu  (Nebo), 
"  The  Guardian  of  Heaven  and  Earth,"  to  whom  the  tem- 
ple was  dedicated.^ 

^  Rawlinson's  first  paper  "  On  the  Birs  Nimrud,  or  the  Great  Temple  of 
Borsippa,"  was  published  in  the  "  journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society," 
vol.  xvii.  (i860),  pp.    1-34. 


■fi       -^ 

H     a 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      187 


TEMPORARY  REVIVAL  OF  PUBLIC  INTEREST  IN  ASSYRIAN 

EXCAVATIONS 

A  large  amount  of  cuneiform  material  had  been  gradually 
stored  in  the  halls  of  the  Louvre  and  of  the  British  Museum 
towards  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  Before  other  funds 
were  likely  to  be  granted  by  governments  and  liberal- 
minded  individuals  for  the  continuation  of  the  excavations 
in  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  mounds,  it  became  necessary  to 
satisfy  the  learned,  and  to  prove  to  the  public  at  large  that 
the  numerous  monuments  and  broken  clay  tablets  unearthed 
could  really  be  read,  and  that  their  intrinsic  value  or  the 
contents  of  their  inscriptions  were  well  worth  the  capital  and 
time  spent  in  their  rediscovery.  The  number  of  scholars 
ready  to  make  the  study  of  cuneiform  inscriptions  their  chief 
occupation,  or  at  least  part  of  their  life's  work,  was  exceed- 
ingly limited,  and  those  who  had  manifested  any  deeper 
interest  in  their  interpretation  were  concerned  more  with 
the  Persian  inscriptions  than  with  those  of  Assyria.  Grote- 
fend  had  tried  repeatedly  to  elucidate  the  meaning  of  the 
most  complicated  of  all  cuneiform  writings,  —  the  so-called 
third  system  of  the  Persian  monuments,  but  he  had  made 
little  progress.  In  1845,  Loewenstern  of  Paris  had  guessed 
the  Semitic  character  of  the  Assyrian  language  correctly. 
Soon  afterwards  De  Longperier  had  recognized  a  few  proper 
names  often  occurring  in  the  titles  of  the  Khorsabad  Inscrip- 
tions. Botta  had  published  important  collections  of  the 
different  cuneiform  signs  found  in  the  same  texts,  from 
which  it  was  proved  beyond  doubt  that  the  Assyrians  could 
never  have  employed  an  alphabet.  And  following  in  the 
footsteps  of  his  predecessors,  De  Saulcy  had  even  gone  so 
far  as  to  undertake  boldly  the  translation  of  an  entire 
Assyrian   inscription.      But   valuable  as  all    these  attempts 


188  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

were  as  public  expressions  of  the  growing  interest  in  Assyr- 
ian literature  and  civilization,  and  of  the  constant  efforts 
made  to  solve  a  difficult  problem,  the  positive  gain  derived 
from  them  was  very  moderate.  There  was  too  much  chafi" 
mixed  with  the  few  grains  of  wheat  which  remained  after 
sifting.  To  have  finally  accomplished  the  gigantic  task  in 
all  its  essential  features,  and  at  the  same  time  to  have  laid 
that  solid  grammatical  foundation  upon  which  the  young 
science  of  Assyriology  gradually  rose  like  a  magnificent 
dome,  and  as  a  grand  monument  of  the  penetrating  acumen 
and  the  conquering  force  of  the  human  mind,  is  the  lasting 
merit  of  Edward  Hincks,  an  Irish  clergyman,  and  of  Colonel 
Rawlinson. 

The  combined  labors  of  these  two  great  British  geniuses 
shed  a  flood  of  light  upon  a  subject  where  previously  no- 
thing but  darkness  and  utter  confusion  prevailed.  But  the 
results  at  which  they  had  arrived  by  strictly  scientific  meth- 
ods and  through  sound  reasoning,  appeared  so  extraordinary 
and  strange  even  to  those  who  were  occupied  with  the 
study  of  ancient  nations,  and  their  manner  of  thinking  and 
writing,  that  twenty-five  years  were  necessary  to  secure  for 
Assyriology  the  general  recognition  of  the  educated  classes 
of  Europe. 

The  detailed  investigations  of  the  many  new  questions 
raised  by  the  successful  determination  of  the  numerous 
polyphone  characters  which  constitute  the  Assyrian  writ- 
ing were,  however,  carried  on  vigorously  by  a  tew  enthu- 
siastic scholars  of  England  and  France,  until,  in  1857,  a 
peculiar  but  impressive  demonstration  on  the  part  of  the 
Royal  Asiatic  Society^  led  to  a  public  acknowledgment 
in  England  of  the  correctness  of  the  principles  of  Assyrian 
deciphering  and  to  a  general  acceptance  of  its  startling  con- 
clusions. Soon  afterwards  (1859)  Oppert's  fundamental 
discussion  of  the  whole  problem,  accompanied  by  a  thorough 
^   Comp.  p.   I  ^o,  above. 


DURING   IDTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      189 

analysis  and  a  literal  translation  of  representative  inscrip- 
tions/ produced  a  similar  effect  in  France,  while  it  took 
ten  to  twenty  years  longer  before  German  scepticism  was 
fully  overcome  through  Eberhard  Schrader's  renewed  crit- 
ical examination  of  the  elaborate  system  of  Assyrian  writing, 
and  his  convincing  proofs  of  the  perfect  reliability  of  the 
achieved  philological  and  historical  results." 

Meanwhile  the  rich  cuneiform  material  previously  gath- 
ered began  to  be  made  accessible  to  all  those  who  were  eager 
to  participate  in  the  fascinating  researches  of  the  newly 
established  science.  Rawlinson  himself  became  the  origi- 
nator of  a  comprehensive  plan,  the  execution  of  which  was 
entrusted  to  him,  in  i860,  by  the  trustees  of  the  British 
Museum.  Ably  assisted  by  Edwin  Norris,  Secretary  of  the 
Royal  Asiatic  Society,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  first 
attempt  at  compiling  an  Assyrian  dictionary,  and  by  George 
Smith,  a  talented  engraver,  who  "  was  employed  to  sort  the 
fragments,  and  tentatively  to  piece  together  such  as  seemed 
to  him  to  belong  to  each  other,"  ^  the  "  father  of  Assyrio- 
logy"  —  as  Rawlinson  has  been  well  styled  —  undertook  to 
publish  the  most  important  texts  of  the  English  collections 
in  an  accurate  and  trustworthy  edition.  In  the  course  of 
twenty-four  years  five  large  volumes  of  "  The  Cuneiform 
Inscriptions  of  Western  Asia  "  ^  were  prepared  bv  the  united 

^  Comp.  Oppert,  Expedition  Scientifique  en  Mesopotamie,  vol.  ii.,  p.  1859, 
and  p.   171,  above. 

■^  Comp.  E.  Schrader,  Die  Basis  dcr  Entzifferung  der  assyrisch-babylonischen 
Keilinschriften,  in  Zeitschrift  der  Deutsehen  Morgenldndischen  GeseUsehaft, 
vol.  xxiii.,  Leipzig,  1869,  and  Die  assyrisch-babylonischen  Kerlinschriften. 
Kritische  Untersuchung  der  Grundlagen  ihrer  Entzifferung,  nebst  dem  Babylo- 
nischen  Texte  der  Trilinguen  Insehriften  in  Transscription  samt  Ubersetzung 
und  Glossar,  ibidem,  vol.  xxvi.,  Leipzig,  1872,  and  furthermore,  Keilinschrif- 
ten  und  Geschichtsforschung,  Giessen,  1878. 

^  Comp.  George  Rawlinson,  <'  A  Memoir  of  Major-General  Sir  Henry 
Creswicke  Rawlinson,"  London,  1898,  p.  240. 

*  Vol.  i.,  London,  1861  ;  vol.  ii.,  1866  ;  vol.  iii.,  1870  ;  vol.  iv.,  1875  '■> 


190  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

efforts  of  these  three  men  and  of  Theophilus  Pinches,  who 
later  took  the  places  of  Norris  and  Smith.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  numerous  mistakes  occurring  on  its  pages,  which 
must  be  attributed  as  much  to  the  frequently  unsatisfactory 
condition  of  the  originals  as  to  the  defective  knowledge  of 
the  laws  of  palaeography  and  philology  in  these  early  days 
of  Assyrian  research,  this  English  publication  has  remained 
the  standard  work  from  which  our  voung  science  has  drawn 
its  chief  nourishment  until  the  present  day. 

GEORGE    SMITH     (l 873-76) 

In  connection  with  his  duties  as  Rawlinson's  assistant 
George  Smith  manifested  a  decided  gift  for  quickly  recog- 
nizing the  characteristic  peculiarities  of  the  many  and  often 
very  similar  cuneiform  signs,  which  soon  enabled  him  to  ac- 
quire an  extraordinary  skill  in  finding  missing  fragments  of 
broken  tablets.  Natural  talents  and  personal  inclinations, 
fostered  by  the  frequent  intercourse  and  conferences  with 
the  acknowledged  master  in  the  field  of  Assyriology,  encour- 
aged him  to  make  strong  efforts  to  overcome  the  disadvan- 
tages resulting  from  the  lack  of  a  proper  education,  and  to 
occupy  himself  seriously  with  the  language  and  writing  of  a 
people  whose  relics  he  was  handling  daily.  It  was  particu- 
larly his  earnest  desire  to  contribute  something  towards  a 
better  understanding  of  the  Old  Testament  which  influ- 
enced him  to  devote  his  whole  time  to  the  study  of  the 
Assyrian  monuments.  After  he  had  gone  over  the  origi- 
nals and  paper  casts  of  most  of  the  historical  inscriptions, 
especially  of  Ashurbanapal,  whose  annals  he  was  the  first 
to  edit  and  to  translate  entirely,  he  began  a  methodical 
search  for  important  texts  among  the  thousands  of  frag- 
ments   from    the    famous    library    of    the    same    monarch. 

2d  edition  (prepared  by  Pinches),  1891;  vol.  v..  Part  i,  1880  (Pinches); 
Part  2,  1884  (Pinches). 


DURING  lOrn   CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       191 

While  unpacking  the  numerous  boxes,  and  cleaning  their 
contents,  his  eye  used  to  glance  over  the  cuneiform  char- 
acters, as  they  gradually  appeared  under  his  brush  upon 
the  surface  of  each  tablet.  To  facilitate  his  later  studies,  he 
divided  the  whole  material  into  six  divisions.  Whenever 
anything  of  interest  attracted  his  attention,  he  laid  the  frag- 
ment aside,  endeavoring  to  find  the  other  parts  and  trying 
every  piece  that  seemed  to  join  or  to  throw  some  light  on 
the  new  subject.  One  day,  in  the  fall  of  1872,  he  picked 
up  a  very  large  fragment  of  the  "mythological  division," 
which  occupied  his  mind  completely  as  soon  as  he  com- 
menced to  decipher.  He  read  of  a  destructive  flood  and  of 
a  great  ship  resting  on  the  mountain  of  Nisir.  A  dove  was 
sent  out  to  try  if  the  water  had  subsided.  A  swallow  came 
next ;  but  it  found  no  resting  place,  and  returned  likewise. 
A  raven  followed,  which  noticed  the  receding  waters,  discov- 
ered something  to  eat,  flew  away  and  did  not  return. 

Smith  had  discovered  the  Babylonian  account  of  the  Del- 
uge, which  in  salient  points  agreed  most  strikingly  with  the 
Biblical  narrative.  He  immediately  made  a  brief  announce- 
ment of  what  he  had  found.  The  general  interest  was 
roused.  With  renewed  zeal  he  began  to  search  for  the  miss- 
ing pieces.  After  infinite  toil  he  discovered  portions  of  two 
other  copies  and  several  minor  parts  of  the  first  fragment, 
at  the  same  time  recognizing  that  the  Babylonian  account 
of  the  Deluge  formed  the  eleventh  chapter  of  a  series  of 
probably  twelve  tablets  containing  the  legends  of  the  great 
national  hero  Gilgamesh,  commonly  known  by  the  name  of 
Izdubar  from  Smith's  first  provisional  reading,  and  regarded 
as  identical  with  the  Nimrod  of  the  Bible  (Gen.  10).  On 
December  3  of  the  same  year  Smith  gave  a  public  lecture 
before  a  large  meeting  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology 
at  which  Rawlinson  presided,  while  Gladstone  and  other 
prominent  men  took  part  in  the  discussion.  He  sketched 
the  principal  contents  of  the  Gilgamesh  legends,  accompa- 


192  JEXPLOBATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

nied  by  a  first  coherent  translation  of  the  fragmentary  ac- 
count of  the  Deluge.  The  sensation  created  by  this  paper 
in  England  and  elsewhere  was  extraordinary.  Scientific  and 
religious  circles  were  equally  profuse  in  their  comment  upon 
the  value  of  the  new  discovery,  and  loud  voices  were  heard 
pleading  for  the  early  resumption  of  the  excavations  in  the 
mounds  of  Nineveh. 

Before  the  government  could  act,  the  proprietors  of  the 
London  "  Daily  Telegraph  "  seized  this  opportunity  to 
make  themselves,  through  Edwin  Arnold,  their  editor-in- 
chief,  the  eloquent  interpreters  of  the  public  sentiment. 
They  offered  to  advance  one  thousand  guineas  for  a  fresh 
expedition  to  the  East,  if  Smith  would  go  out  personally  to 
search  for  other  tablets  of  the  interesting  legends,  and  from 
time  to  time  would  send  accounts  of  his  journeys  and  dis- 
coveries to  their  paper.  The  British  Museum  accepted  the 
generous  proposition  and  granted  the  necessary  leave  of  ab- 
sence to  its  officer.  On  the  20th  of  January,  1873,  George 
Smith  left  London,  reaching  Mosul,  "  the  object  of  so  many 
of  his  thoughts  and  hopes,"  six  weeks  later.  But  on  his 
arrival  in  Assyria  he  learned  that  no  firman  had  yet  been 
granted  in  Constantinople.  Unable  to  obtain  any  favors 
from  the  local  government,  he  started  for  Baghdad,  on  his 
way  down  the  Tigris  examining  the  mounds  of  Nimriid 
and  Qal'at  Shirgat,  as  far  as  winter  storms  and  rains  would 
permit.  He  could  spend  only  a  fortnight  in  northern 
Babylonia,  but  it  was  profitably  employed  in  buying  antiqui- 
ties and  visiting  the  mounds  of  Babylon,  El-Birs,  Ohemir 
and  Tell  Ibrahim  in  rapid  succession.  The  more  he  looked 
upon  these  enormous  heaps  of  rubbish  gradually  formed  by 
the  crumbling  works  of  former  generations,  the  more  he 
realized  the  necessitv  of  their  methodical  exploration.  He 
would  himself  have  preferred  excavating  in  "  the  older  and 
richer  country  "  to  searching  for  the  fragmentary  copies  of 
Babylonian  originals  in  the  palaces  of  Assyrian  kings.      But 


DURING  rjTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      193 

it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  he  would  have  been  so  suc- 
cessful in  the  South  as  he  was  with  his  clearly  defined  task 
and  his  limited  time  in  the  North.  Most  curious  is  his 
attempt  at  rearranging  the  principal  ruins  of  Babylon  in 
accordance  with  his  own  notions  of  the  topography  of  the 
ancient  metropolis.  Notwithstanding  his  superior  know- 
ledge of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  and  though  contrary  to 
all  evidence  adduced  by  the  early  explorers  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  he  revived  the  old  theory  of  Rennell  and 
Mignan,  believing  the  lofty  mound  of  Babil  to  represent 
the  remains  of  the  temple  of  Belus.  The  hanging  gardens 
were  placed  on  the  western  side  of  the  Qasr,  between  the 
river  Euphrates  and  the  palace  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  and 
the  fine  yellow  piers  and  buttresses  of  the  latter  regarded 
as  part  of  them  ;  while  'Omran  ibn  'Ali,  "  which  promises 
little  or  nothing  to  an  explorer,"  only  marks  "  the  spot, 
where  the  old  city  was  most  thickly  inhabited."  It  was 
fortunate  for  Smith  and  for  science  that  he  had  no  time  to 
imitate  Layard's  example  at  Babylon  and  Nippur,  the  final 
grant  of  the  firman  calling  him  away  to  the  mounds  of 
Assyria. 

On  the  3d  of  April  he  was  back  in  Mosul.  Six  days 
later  he  started  his  excavations  at  Nimrud,  which  he  con- 
tinued for  a  whole  month.  There  was  no  longer  a  chance 
of  lighting  on  any  new  sculptured  palaces  or  temples  like 
those  discovered  by  Botta  and  Layard.  The  "  day  of  small 
things,"  announced  long  before  by  Rawlinson  as  "  certain 
to  follow  on  the  rich  yield  of  the  earlier  labours,"  had  com- 
menced. "  New  inscriptions  and  small  objects  of  art  are  all 
that  I  expect  to  obtain  from  continual  excavations  either  in 
Assyria  or  Babylonia,"  he  had  written  to  Sir  Henry  Ellis  in 
1853,^  and  the  proceeds  of  the  later  operations  fully  justi- 
fied his  prediction.     Smith  opened  trenches  at  nearly  all  the 

^  Comp.  George  Rawlinson,  "A  Memoir  of  Major-General  Sir  Henry 
Creswicke  Rawlinson,"  London,   1898,  pp.   117,  seq. 


194  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

different  places  of  Nimrud,  where  Layard  and  Rassam  had 
won  their  laurels,  but  on  the  whole  he  found  nothing  but 
duplicates  of  texts  and  other  antiquities  previously  known. 
His  entire  fresh  harvest  from  the  ruins  of  Calah  consisted 
in  part  of  an  inscribed  slab  of  Tiglath-Pileser  III.;  three 
terra-cotta  models  of  a  hand  embedded  in  the  walls  —  one 
of  them  bearing  a  legend  of  Ashurnasirapal  II.  ;  frag- 
ments of  enamelled  bricks  representing  scenes  of  war ;  and 
a  receptacle  discovered  in  the  floor  of  a  room  of  the  S.  E. 
palace  and  filled  with  six  terra-cotta  winged  genii.  These 
figures  apparently  were  placed  there  to  protect  the  building 
and  to  secure  fertility  to  its  inmates.^  From  the  ornamenta- 
tion of  the  palace,  the  nature  of  the  few  objects  gathered 
from  its  chambers,  and  inscribed  bricks  taken  from  the 
drains  surrounding  it.  Smith  was  enabled  to  conclude  that  it 
originally  must  have  been  a  private  building  for  the  wives 
and  families  of  King  Shalmaneser  II.  (later  restored  bv 
Ashuretililani). 

On  the  yth  of  May  he  moved  to  Qoyunjuk  to  begin  his 
search  for  the  remaining  tablets  of  the  royal  library.  He 
superintended  the  work  in  person,  with  the  exception  of  a 
brief  absence  caused  by  his  visits  to  the  ruins  of  Hammam 
'All  and  Khorsabad.  The  excavations  proceeded  but  slowly. 
The  whole  ground  had  been  cut  up  by  former  explorers 
and  by  the  builders  of  the  Mosul  bridge,  who  extracted 
their  materials  from  the  foundation  walls  of  the  Assyrian 
palaces.  Manv  of  Layard's  subterranean  passages  had  col- 
lapsed, and  small  vallevs  and  hills  had  been  formed,  chan- 
ging the  old  contour  of  the  mound  entirely.  Wherever  the 
eye  glanced,  it  saw  nothing  but  pits  and  gulleys  partly  filled 
with  rubbish,  crumbling  walls  of  unbaked  clay  threatening  to 
fall  at  the  slightest  vibration,  heavy  blocks  of  stones  peeping 
out  of  the  ground,  large  pieces  of  sculptured  slabs  jammed 

^  Not  merely  "  to  preserve  the  building  against  the  power  of  evil  spirits;  " 
Smith,  "Assyrian  Discoveries,"  3d  ed..  New  York,   1876,  p.  78. 


DURING  W'li   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      195 


In  between  heaps  of  fragments  of  bricks,  mortar,  and  pot- 
tery—  a  vast  picture  of  utter  confusion  and  destruction. 
To  secure  good 
results  it  would 
have  been  ne- 
cessary to  re- 
move and  to  sift 
this  whole  mass 
of  earth.  All 
that  Smith 
could  do  was  to 
select  the  library 
spaces  of  the 
two  ruined 
buildings  and 
to  examine  that 
neighborhood 
once  more  for 
fragments  of 
tablets,  leaving 
their  discovery 
chiefly  to  good 
luck  and  to  for- 
tunate circum- 
stances. But 
after  all,  the 
mission  for 
which     he     had 

been  sent  out  was  accomplished  more  quicklv  than  he  could 
have  expected.  On  the  14th  of  May,  on  cleaning  one  of 
the  fragments  of  cuneiform  inscriptions  from  the  palace 
of  Ashurbanapal,  the  result  of  that  day's  digging,  he  found  to 
his  surprise  and  gratification  "  that  it  contained  the  greater 
portion  of  seventeen  lines  of  inscription  belonging  to  the 
first  column  of  the  Chaldean  account  of  the  Deluge,  which 
15 


The  Ruins  of  Nineveh 
A  North  gate.     B  North  palace  (^of  Ashurbanapal).     C  South- 
ivest  palace   (of  Sennacherib).      D    Village  of  Neb'i    Yiinus. 
E    Burial  ground.      F    Large  east  gate.      Roads  are  marked 
thus  : . 


196  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

fitted  into  the  only  place  where  there  was  a  serious  blank  in 
the  story."  ^  The  cheerful  news  was  soon  cabled  to  Lon- 
don, in  the  expectation  that  the  proprietors  of  the  "  Daily 
Telegraph"  would  feel  encouraged  to  continue  the  excava- 
tions still  longer.  But  considering  "  that  the  discovery  of 
the  missing  fragment  of  the  deluge  text  accomplished  the 
object  they  had  in  view,"  they  declined  to  authorize  new 
explorations.  Disappointed  as  Smith  felt  at  the  sudden 
termination  ot  his  work,  he  had  to  obey.  On  the  9th  of 
June  he  withdrew  his  Arabs  from  the  mound,  leaving  the 
same  day  for  England,  which  country  he  reached  forty  days 
later,  after  his  antiquities  had  been  seized  by  the  custom 
house  officials  in  Alexandretta. 

Through  the  representations  of  the  British  ambassador 
at  Constantinople,  the  precious  fragments  of  the  library, 
which  formed  the  principal  result  of  his  expedition,  were 
soon  released.  Upon  their  arrival  in  London  thev  received 
Smith's  immediate  attention.  Before  long  he  could  report 
on  the  variety  and  importance  of  their  contents.  The  trus- 
tees of  the  British  Museum,  realizing  the  value  of  the  recent 
additions,  decided  to  profit  by  the  old  firman  as  long  as  it 
lasted,  and,  setting  aside  a  sum  of  ^1000,  directed  their 
curator  to  return  to  Nineveh  at  once  and  search  for  other 
inscriptions  at  the  mound  of  Ooyunjuk.  On  the  25th  of 
November,  1873,  Smith  was  on  the  road  again,  arriving 
at  Mosul  on  the  first  day  of  the  new  year.  During  the  few 
months  of  his  absence  from  the  field  things  had  changed 
considerably.  Another  governor,  to  whom  the  pasha  of 
Mosul  was  subordinate,  had  been  appointed  at  Baghdad. 
He  now^  issued  orders  to  watch  the  movements  of  the  for- 
eigner, to  question  his  superintendents,  and  to  place  a  scribe 
as  spv  over  his  excavations.  Greatly  annoyed  as  Smith 
naturally  felt  by  constant  false  reports  and  many  other  im- 

^  The  divine  command  to  construct  and  to  fill  the  ark  with  all  kinds  of 
living  creatures. 


DURING   I'JTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      197 

pediments  thrown  in  his  way,  he  conducted  his  labors  with 
characteristic  determination,  gradually  increasing  the  num- 
ber of  his  workmen  to  ahnost  six  hundred.  The  peculiar 
task  of  his  mission  requiring,  as  it  did  within  the  short 
period  of  two  months,  the  examination  of  as  wide  an  area 
as  possible  and  the  removal  of  an  enormous  amount  of  rub- 
bish thrown  upon  the  surface  of  the  mound  by  the  former 
excavators,  explains  sufficiently  why  he  employed  such  a 
large  body  of  men  over  which  it  was  impossible  to  exercise 
a  proper  control.  About  the  middle  of  March  his  firman 
ceased.  A  few  days  previously  he  closed  his  researches. 
But  a  new  embarrassment  appeared.  The  local  authorities 
refused  to  let  him  go,  unless  he  delivered  half  of  all  the 
antiquities  found  as  the  share  of  the  Ottoman  Museum. 
Telegraphic  communications  were  opened  with  the  British 
ambassador  at  Constantinople,  which  subsequently  led  to 
a  satisfactory  arrangement  with  the  Porte.  Leaving  only 
half  of  the  duplicates  in  the  hands  of  the  Turkish  officials. 
Smith  could  finally  depart  from  Mosul  on  the  4th  of 
April,  1874. 

In  examining  the  fruit  of  our  explorer's  two  visits  to  the 
East,  we  are  forcibly  reminded  of  a  word  of  Rawlinson. 
The  immediate  results  of  his  excavations  were  "  not  such  as 
to  secure  popular  applause,  or  even  to  satisfy  the  utilitarian 
party  ;  "  they  had  to  be  studied  at  first  to  prove  that  they 
constituted  a  very  decided  gain  for  science.  Under  peculiar 
difficulties  Smith  had  worked  only  three  months  altogether 
in  the  rich  mines  of  antiquities  at  Ooyunjuk.  But  in  this 
limited  space  of  time  he  had  obtained  over  ^000  inscrip- 
tions from  the  royal  library  of  Nineveh,  including  mytho- 
logical, astronomical,  chronological,  and  grammatical  texts, 
prayers,  hymns,  and  litanies,  syllabaries,  and  bilingual  tablets 
of  the  utmost  importance.  Moreover,  the  majority  of  the 
fragments  rescued  formed  parts  of  inscriptions,  the  other 
portions  of  which  were  already  in  the  British  Museum,  thus 


198  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

completing  or  greatly  enlarging  representative  texts  of  nearly 
all  the  different  branches  of  Assyrian  literature.  Among 
the  new  inscriptions  which  he  brought  home,  there  were 
fragments  of  the  Chaldean  stories  ot  the  Creation,  of  the 
Fall  of  Man,  of  the  Deluge,  and  portions  of  the  national 
epics  of  Gilgamesh  ;  the  legend  of  the  seven  evil  spirits  ; 
the  mythical  account  of  the  youth  of  Sargon  of  Agade  ;  a 
"  tablet  for  recording  the  division  of  heavens  according  to 
the  four  seasons  and  the  rule  for  regulating  the  intercalary 
month  of  the  year  "  ;  the  report  of  an  eclipse  of  the  moon 
and  its  probable  meaning  for  Assyria  ;  an  officer's  commu- 
nication to  the  king  as  to  repairs  necessary  at  the  queen's 
palace  at  Kabzi  (  =  Tell  Shemamyk)  ;  a  beautiful  bilingual 
hymn  to  Ishtar,  as  "  the  light  of  heaven  "  ;  an  invocation  to 
the  deified  hero  Gilgamesh  ;  explanations  of  the  ideographs 
of  prominent  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  cities  ;  directions  to 
the  workmen  as  to  what  inscriptions  are  to  be  carved  over 
the  various  sculptures  in  the  palace,  and  many  other  tablets 
of  equal  interest  and  importance.  His  new  acquisitions 
added  no  less  to  our  knowledge  of  the  general  history  of 
Assyria  and  its  neighboring  countries.  I  mention  only  the 
fine  stone  tablet  of  Adadnirari  I.  (about  1325  b.  c.),^  pur- 
chased from  the  French  consul  at  Mosul ;  the  votive  dishes 
and  bricks  of  his  son,  Shalmaneser  I.,  from  a  palace  and 
temple  at  Nineveh  ;  the  first  inscription  of  Mutakkil-Nusku 
(about  1 175  B.  c.)  ;  the  Assyrian  copy  of  the  genealogy  and 
building  operations  of  the  Cassite  king,  Agumkakrime  (about 
1600  B.  c.)  ;  a  new  fragment  of  the  synchronous  history  of 
Assyria  and  Babylonia  in  the  thirteenth  century;  the  expe- 
dition of  Sargon  against  Ashdod  (Is.  20:1)  from  a  new 
octagonal  prism  ;  a  large  number  of  texts  to  complete  the 
annals  of  Sennacherib,  Esarhaddon,  and  Ashurbanapal,  and 
part  of  a  barrel  cylinder  of  Sinsharishkun,  the  last  Assyr- 
ian ruler  —  all  of  which  were  discovered  at  the  mound  of 
^  Which  had  been  discovered  in  the  ruins  of  Qal'at  Shirgat  on  the  Tigris. 


DURING   Idrii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND   BABYLONIA      199 

Ooyunjuk.  Compared  with  former  expeditions  the  excava- 
tions of  Smith  furnished  but  Httle  on  the  subject  of  art  and 
architecture.  This  cannot  surprise  us,  for  he  was  sent  out 
not  to  find  sculptures  and  palaces,  but  to  search  for  those 
small  fragments  of  inscriptions  which  others  had  neglected 
to  extract  from  their  trenches. 

After  his  return  to  England  in  June,  1874,  George  Smith 
was  occupied  for  some  time  with  a  renewed  examination  of 
the  Qoyunjuk  collection  of  tablets,  in  order  to  gather  and 
to  translate  all  those  texts  which  dealt  with  the  earliest 
Babylonian  legends,  and  through  their  frequent  remarkable 
coincidence  with  similar  stories  in  the  Old  Testament  were 
likely  to  throw  new  light  upon  the  first  chapters  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch, and  to  illustrate  the  origin  and  development  of 
ancient  Hebrew  traditions.  In  rapid  succession  he  pub- 
lished his  "Assyrian  Discoveries"  (London,  1875),  which 
gave  the  historv  and  principal  results  of  his  two  expedi- 
tions, and  "The  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis"  (London, 
1876),  containing  the  translations  of  Babylonian  legends 
and  fables  from  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  discovered  by 
Layard,  Rassam,  and  himself.  Both  books  were  received 
enthusiastically  by  the  public,  the  latter  witnessing  no  less 
than  five  editions  within  a  few  months.  It  was  doubtless 
in  no  small  part  due  to  this  great  popularitv,  which  the  re- 
searches of  Smith  found  again  in  consequence  of  their  bear- 
ing upon  the  Bible,  that,  in  the  fall  of  1875,  ^^^  British 
Museum  decided  to  resume  its  excavations  at  Nineveh.  In 
March,  1876,  after  the  necessary  firman  had  been  granted 
again,  Smith  could  start  for  the  East  a  third  time.  A  col- 
lection of  antiquities  unearthed  by  the  Arabs  at  Jumjuma 
the  previous  winter,  and  offered  for  sale  to  Rawlinson,  led 
him  at  first  to  Baghdad.  But  on  his  arrival  he  found  him- 
self seriouslv  embarrassed.  The  whole  population  was  in  a 
state  of  great  excitement.  Cholera  and  plague  had  appeared 
and   played   terrible   havoc   among   the   inhabitants   of  the 


200  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

towns  and  the  wandering  tribes  of  the  desert.  Order  and 
discipline  had  become  words  without  meaning,  the  regular 
channels  of  communication  with  the  officials  were  frequently 
interrupted,  and  the  laws  of  hospitality  were  no  longer  re- 
spected. Smith  tried  in  vain  to  fight  against  unfortunate 
circumstances  and  superior  forces.  As  long  as  the  dreaded 
maladies  kept  their  iron  rule  in  the  country,  there  was  no 
possibility  for  him  to  begin  excavations.  Unmindful  of  the 
dangers  from  climate  and  constant  exposure,  working  too. 
much  and  resting  too  little,  often  without  food  and  finding 
no  shelter,  he  gradually  broke  down  on  the  road.  With 
difficulty  he  dragged  himself  to  Aleppo,  where  on  the  19th 
of  August  he  died  ^  in  the  house  of  the  English  consul, 
having  fallen  a  staunch  fighter  in  the  cause  of  science. 

In  looking  back  upon  the  short  but  eventful  life  of 
George  Smith  as  a  scholar  and  as  an  explorer,  we  cannot 
but  admire  the  man  who  by  his  extraordinary  zeal  and 
power  of  will  became  one  of  the  most  remarkable  interpre- 
ters of  cuneiform  inscriptions  whom  England  has  produced. 
Without  the  advantage  of  a  well  directed  instruction,  and 
in  his  early  davs  debarred  from  those  beneficial  associations 
with  inspiring  men  which  essentially  help  to  color  our  life 
and  to  shape  our  character,  he  was  left  to  his  own  inclina- 
tions until  he  attracted  the  attention  of  Rawlinson.  With 
the  latter  as  a  guide,  and  supported  by  natural  gifts,  he 
worked  hard  to  train  his  mind  and  to  fill  out  those  gaps 
which  separated  him  from  the  republic  of  letters.  But  not- 
withstanding all  his  serious  exertions,  he  did  not  succeed 
entirely  in  effacing  the  traces  of  a  desultorv  self-education, 
and  the  obnoxious  influences  of  an  unguarded  youth.  As 
an  explorer  he  did  not  possess  that  linguistic  talent,  that 

^  Comp.  the  notices  of  his  death  in  "  The  Academy,"  vol.  x.,  pp.  265, 
seq.,  and  "The  Athena?um  "  of  Sept.  9,  1876,  p.  338.  Extracts  from 
Smith's  last  diary  were  published  by  Delitzsch,  Wo  lag  das  Paradiest'  Leip- 
zig, 1881,  pp.  266,  seq. 


DURING   lOr/i   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND  BABYLONIA      201 

congenial  manner  of  adapting  oneself  to  the  customs  and 
laws  of  the  Kast,  that  loving  sympathy  with  the  joys  and 
sorrows  of  the  children  of  the  desert,  which  won  for  Layard 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  natives,  and  made  him  a 
welcome  guest  at  every  camp-fire  and  tent  of  the  Arabs. 
And  as  a  scholar  he  did  not  acquire  that  depth  and  extent 
of  knowledge,  that  independence  of  judgment  and  bold  self- 
reliance  which  permeate  the  writings  of  Rawlinson,  nor  could 
he  ever  boast  of  Hinck's  mental  brilliancy  and  that  subtle 
understanding  of  grammatical  rules  which  characterize  the 
latter's  works.  But  stern  in  the  conception  of  his  duties, 
always  thinking  of  his  task  and  never  of  his  person,  pro- 
vided with  an  astonishing  memory,  and  a  highly  developed 
sense  for  the  differences  of  form,  he  stands  unexcelled  in 
his  masterly  knowledge  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  the 
British  Museum,  while  his  numerous  contributions  to  sci- 
ence testify  to  that  rare  intuition  and  gift  of  divination 
which  enabled  him  often  to  translate  correctly  where  others 
failed  to  grasp  the  meaning. 

RASSAM     (1878-82). 

Upon  the  sudden  death  of  George  Smith  the  trustees  ot 
the  British  Museum  requested  Hormuzd  Rassam  to  take 
charge  again  of  the  excavations  in  the  Assyrian  mounds. 
Although  in  1869  the  latter  had  resigned  his  political  ap- 
pointment at  Aden  and  retired  to  private  life  in  England, 
after  manv  hardships  experienced  as  prisoner  of  King  Theo- 
dore of  Abvssinia,  he  accepted  the  proffered  trust  at  once  and 
started  for  Constantinople  in  November,  1876,  in  order  to 
obtain  a  more  satisfactory  firman  than  had  been  granted  to 
his  predecessor.  But  all  his  efforts  in  this  direction  proved 
without  result.  Certain  grave  political  complications  which 
soon  led  to  the  Turco-Russian  war,  and  the  unexpected  ter- 
mination of  the  International  Conference  at  Pera  which  tried 


202  EXFLOBATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

to  prevent  it,  had  created  a  situation  most  unfavorable  to 
the  resumption  of  archaeological  researches  in  the  Ottoman 
empire.  Edhem  Pasha,  father  of  Hamdy  Bey,  the  present 
director-general  of  the  Imperial  Museum  at  Stambul,  was 
then  Grand  Vizier.  He  was  not  ill  disposed  towards  Eng- 
land, but  as  one  of  Turkey's  most  eminent  and  enlightened 
statesmen,  he  considered  it  his  first  duty  to  protect  and  pro- 
mote the  interests  of  his  own  country.  Accordingly,  he  sug- 
gested that  "  a  convention  should  be  entered  into  between 
the  British  government  and  the  Porte,  giving  the  sole  privi- 
lege to  P,ngland  of  making  researches  in  Turkey,  similar 
to  that  which  had  been  agreed  upon  between  Germany  and 
Greece."  Such  an  arrangement,  however,  was  to  be  based 
upon  the  condition  that  Turkey  retained  all  the  antiquities 
discovered,  with  option  of  giving  only  duplicates  to  the  Brit- 
ish Museum.  But  Rassam  did  not  consider  himself  author- 
ized to  spend  public  money  without  the  prospect  of  some 
material  compensation.  Looking  upon  the  mere  right  of 
publishing  the  scientific  results  as  "  an  empty  favor,"  for 
which  he  had  little  understanding,  he  declined  the  proposi- 
tion of  the  Grand  Vizier  as  a  one-sided  agreement,  and 
returned  to  England  after  having  waited  nearly  four  months 
in  a  vain  effort  to  accomplish  his  purpose. 

All  the  ambassadors  had  left  Constantinople  before,  as  a 
last  protest  against  Turkey's  stubborn  and  most  unfortunate 
attitude  towards  the  conciliatory  measures  proposed  by  the 
great  European  powers.  But  England  deemed  it  soon  neces- 
sary to  dispatch  a  special  representative  to  the  Turkish  cap- 
ital, who  was  well  versed  in  Oriental  matters  and  publicly 
known  as  a  warm  friend  of  the  Ottoman  empire.  The 
choice  of  the  British  government  fell  upon  Sir  Henry  Lay- 
ard,  who  at  that  time  occupied  a  similar  position  at  the 
court  of  Spain.  No  better  appointment  could  have  been 
made  for  realizing  the  plans  of  the  British  Museum.  Two 
months  after  Layard's  arrival  at  Constantinople  (April,  i  877), 


DURING  lom  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      203 

we  find  Rassam  again  on  the  shore  of  the  Bosphorus,  in- 
spired with  fresh  enthusiasm  by  the  hope  of  attaining  the 
object  of  his  mission  under  the  more  favorable  new  constel- 
lation. Deeply  interested  as  the  ambassador  still  was  in  the 
Assyrian  researches  of  his  nation,  which  more  than  thirty 
years  previously  he  had  inaugurated  so  successfully  himself, 
he  addressed  the  Sultan  personally  for  a  renewal  of  the  old 
concessions  repeatedly  accorded  to  the  British  Museum. 
The  request  was  granted  at  once,  but  before  the  official  doc- 
ument could  be  signed,  Rassam  "  received  orders  from  Sir 
Henry  Layard,  under  direction  of  the  Foreign  Office,"  to 
visit  the  Armenians  and  other  Christians  in  Asia  Minor  who 
were  reported  to  be  maltreated  and  in  danger  of  being  mas- 
sacred by  their  fanatic  Kurdish  neighbors.  About  the  time 
when  this  diplomatic  mission  was  completed,  —  towards  the 
end  of  1877,  —  Rassam  was  informed  by  cable  that  the 
Sublime  Porte  had  formally  sanctioned  the  resumption  of 
his  excavations  in  Assyria.  A  few  weeks  later  he  commenced 
that  series  of  explorations  which,  with  several  short  interrup- 
tions, generally  caused  by  the  ceasing  of  the  necessary  funds 
at  home,  were  carried  on  with  his  well-known  energy,  in  four 
distinct  campaigns,  for  a  period  of  nearly  five  years,  from 
January  7,  1878,  to  the  end  of  July,  1882.^ 

^  First  Expedition  :  He  leaves  England  June,  1877,  Constantinople  a  month 
later,  begins  operations  at  the  Assyrian  mounds  Jan.  7,  1878,  departs  from 
Mosul  May  17,  returns  to  London  July  12  of  the  same  year. 

Second  Expedition:  He  leaves  England  Oct.  8,  1878,  arrives  at  Mosul 
Nov.  16,  descends  the  Tigris  for  Baghdad  Jan.  30,  1879,  excavates  and 
explores  Babylonian  sites  during  February  and  March,  returns  to  Mosul  April 
2,  departs  for  Europe  May  2,  reaches  London  June  19  of  the  same  year. 

Third  Expedition :  He  leaves  London  April  7,  1880,  arrives  at  Hilla 
May  24,  superintends  the  excavations  at  Babylon  and  neighboring  ruins  for 
eight  days,  spends  a  week  in  Baghdad,  leaves  this  city  June  9,  reaches  Mosul 
a  fortnight  later,  departs  for  Wan  July  I  5,  reaches  the  latter  July  29,  for  a 
month  resumes  the  excavations  at  Toprak  Kale,  which  at  his  request  an  Amer- 
ican missionary.  Dr.  Reynolds  (later  in  conjunction   with  Captain  Clayton, 


204  EXI'LOUATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

As  long  as  Lavard  occupied  his  influential  position  at  the 
Turkish  capital  (1877-80)  there  was  no  difficulty  in  obtain- 
ing new  grants,  and  the  special  recommendation  of  his  exca- 
vator to  all  the  local  authorities  in  the  different  provinces  of 
the  Ottoman  empire.  The  first  firman  lasted  only  one  year. 
It  gave  Rassam  the  right  to  explore  any  Assyrian  ruin  not 
occupied  by  Moslem  tombs,  and  allotted  one  third  of  the 
antiquities  discovered  to  the  British  Museum,  one  third  to 
the  owner  of  the  mound,  and  the  rest  to  the  Archaeological 
Museum  at  Constantinople,  the  share  of  the  latter  naturally 
being  doubled  in  case  the  site  was  crown  property.  An 
imperial  delegate,  who  was  appointed  at  first  to  guard 
the  interests  of  the  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction  in  the 
trenches,  was  soon  afterwards  withdrawn  on  the  representa- 
tion of  the  British  ambassador.  The  second  firman,  written 
in  the  name  of  Lavard,  must  be  regarded  as  a  gracious  com- 
pliment paid  to  him  by  the  Sultan.  It  was  granted  for  two 
years  (until  Oct.  15,  1880),  with  the  promise  of  a  further 
term  (till  1881),  if  required,  and  invested  Layard  with  the 
exceptional  power  of  carrying  on  excavations  simultaneously 
in  the  various  ruins  of  the  vilayets  of  Baghdad,  Aleppo,  and 
Wan  (Mosul   being  included  in   the  first-named   pashalic), 

the  newly  appointed  British  consul),  had  carried  on  for  him  since  1879.  He 
leaves  Wan  Sept.  10,  returns  to  Mosul  Sept.  27,  superintends  the  Assyrian 
excavations  for  six  weeks,  leaves  Mosul  by  raft  Nov.  i  i ,  excavates  at  Babylon 
and  El-Birs  during  the  first  three  weeks  in  December.  Then  he  proceeds 
northward  to  explore  other  Babylonian  ruins  and  to  search  for  the  site  ot  an- 
cient Sippara,  begins  his  excavations  at  Abu  Habba  and  tries  Tell  Ibrahim  and 
other  neighboring  mounds  during  the  first  four  months  of  I  881,  departs  from 
Abu  Habba  for  the  Mediterranean  May  3,  1 881,  reaching  England  about 
two  months  later. 

Fourth  Expedition  :  He  leaves  England  March  7,  1882,  reaches  Baghdad 
April  21,  superintends  the  excavations  at  Abu  Habba  until  the  end  ot  July, 
waits  nearly  three  months  longer  at  Baghdad  for  a  renewal  of  the  firman,  but, 
disappointed  in  his  hopes,  departs  for  Basra  Oct.  22,  1882,  leaves  the  latter 
port  Nov.  II  by  steamer,  reaching  London  again  in  December,  1882. 


DURING  Will  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND    BABYLONIA      205 

giving  him,  in  addition,  the  privilege  of  retaining  all  the 
antiquities  found  except  duplicates,  after  their  mere  formal 
inspection  by  an  imperial  commissioner. 

It  was  a  comparatively  easy  task  for  Rassam  to  excavate 
under  such  favorable  conditions  and  supported  by  a  power- 
ful friend.  The  remarkable  results  which  accompanied  his 
labors  in  Babylonia  will  be  treated  later.  The  method  fol-« 
lowed  was  everywhere  the  same.  Owing  to  the  large  geo- 
graphical area  included  in  his  permit  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  superintend  all  the  excavations  in  person.  As  a  rule 
he  directed  them  only  from  the  distance,  sometimes  not  vis- 
iting the  same  ruin  for  weeks  and  months,  and  in  a  few  cases 
even  for  a  whole  year.  During  his  absence  from  'Iraq,  the 
British  Resident  at  Baghdad  undertook  a  general  control  of 
his  excavations  in  Babylonia,  while  at  Mosul  his  nephew, 
Nimrud  Rassam,  acted  most  of  the  time  as  his  agent  in  con- 
nection with  the  operations  conducted  on  several  Assyrian 
sites.  A  number  of  intelligent  native  overseers,  among 
whom  a  certain  Daud  Toma  played  a  conspicuous  role  as 
his  representative  at  Babvlon,  carried  on  the  work  as  well  as 
they  could  and  as  far  as  possible  in  accordance  with  their 
master's  instructions.  One  can  easily  imagine  how  unsatis- 
factory such  an  arrangement  must  prove  in  the  end,  as 
diametrically  opposed  to  all  sound  principles  of  a  strict  sci- 
entific investigation  and  in  part  as  contrary  to  the  very  ex- 
plicit instructions  received  from  the  British  Museum.  It 
was  the  old  system  of  pillage  in  a  new  and  enlarged  edition. 
Nobody  recognized  and  felt  this  more  than  Hamdy  Bey,  to 
whom  we  must  be  trulv  grateful  for  sparing  no  efforts  to  stop 
this  antiquated  and  obnoxious  system  immediately  after  the 
termination  of  Rassam's  concession  in  1882.  Through  his 
energetic  measures,  which  led  to  a  complete  reorganization 
of  the  Ottoman  laws  of  excavation,  henceforth  no  person 
received  permission  to  explore  more  than  one  ancient  ruin 
at  the  same  time,  and  this  only  with  the  express  stipulation 


206  EXPLORATIONS  IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

that  all  the  antiquities  recovered  became  the  exclusive  pro- 
perty of  the  Imperial  Museum  in  Constantinople. 

Before  Rassam  left  England  in  1877,  his  duties  had  been 
clearlv  defined  by  the  trustees  of  the  great  London  Mu- 
seum. In  continuing  the  work  of  his  lamented  predecessor, 
he  was  ordered  to  concentrate  his  activity  upon  the  mounds 
of  Nineveh,  and  to  trv  to  secure  as  many  fragments  as  pos- 
sible from  the  library  of  Ashurbanapal.  But  such  a  task 
was  very  little  to  the  liking  of  Rassam,  whose  personal  am- 
bition was  directed  to  sensational  finds  rather  than  to  a  care- 
ful search  for  broken  clay  tablets  which  he  could  not  read, 
and  the  importance  of  which  he  was  not  educated  enough  to 
realize.  We  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  his  own  words : 
"  Although  that  was  the  first  object  of  my  mission,  I  was, 
nevertheless,  more  eager  to  discover  some  new  ancient  sites 
than  to  confine  my  whole  energy  on  such  a  tame  undertak- 
ing. .  .  .  My  aim  was  to  discover  unknown  edifices,  and  to 
bring  to  light  some  important  Assyrian  monument."^  His 
ambition  was  soon  to  be  gratified. 

A  year  before  he  was  commissioned  to  renew  the  British 
explorations  in  Assyria,  a  friend  of  his,  employed  as  drago- 
man in  the  French  consulate  at  Mosul,  had  sent  him  two 
pieces  of  ancient  bronze  adorned  with  figures  and  cuneiform 
signs,  in  which  Savce  recognized  the  name  of  Shalmaneser. 
Upon  the  latter's  advice,  Rassam  endeavored  to  determine, 
immediately  after  his  return  to  the  banks  of  the  Tigris, 
where  these  relics  had  been  found.  It  did  not  take  him  long 
to  learn  that  the  two  pieces  presented  to  him  were  part  of  a 
large  bronze  plate  accidentally  unearthed  by  a  peasant  in  the 
mound  of  Balawat(d),  about  fifteen  miles  to  the  east  of  Mo- 
sul. On  examining  this  ruin  he  observed  that  the  whole  site 
had  been  largely  used  as  a  burial  ground  by  the  native  popu- 
lation of  that  district,  and  was  therefore  excluded  from  the 

^  Comp.  Rassam,  "  Asshur  and  the  Land  of  Nimrod,"  New  York,  1897, 
p.  200. 


DURING  l'.)^ii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      207 

sphere  of  his  finnan.  But  feeling  that  the  exceptional  char- 
acter of  the  desired  monument  "  was  well  w^orth  the  risk  of 
getting  into  hot  water  with  the  authorities,  and  even  with  the 
villagers,"  he  troubled  himself  concerning  the  restrictions 
imposed  upon  him  by  law  or  etiquette  just  as  little  then,  as 
he  had  done  twenty-four  years  previously,  when  he  tore 
down  the  barrier  erected  by  Rawlinson,  and  occupied  the 
French  territory  of  Qoyunjuk.  However,  it  cost  him  con- 
siderable time  and  anxiety  and  frequent  disappointment  be- 
fore he  obtained  the  much  coveted  prize.  The  excitement 
and  disturbance  among  the  Arabs  of  the  neighboring  tribes 
subsequent  to  his  first  attempts  at  cutting  trenches  in  the 
promising  mound  were  extraordinary,  and  at  times  threat- 
ened to  end  in  serious  conflicts  and  bloodshed.  There  even 
were  moments  when  he  himself  lost  all  hope  of  ever  reach- 
ing the  object  of  his  desire  and  efforts.  But  by  profiting 
from  every  temporary  lull  in  the  storm,  by  distributing 
occasional  small  gifts  among  the  dissatisfied  workmen,  and 
by  superintending  the  excavations,  as  far  as  possible,  himself, 
he  overcame  the  chief  opposition,  and  the  strong  prejudices 
of  the  owners  of  graves,  so  far  as  to  enable  him  to  ascertain 
the  general  contents  of  the  mound,  and  to  make  some  most 
valuable  discoveries. 

Shortly  after  the  commencement  of  their  operations  the 
workmen  came  upon  several  scrolls  or  strips  of  bronze,  in 
form  and  execution  similar  to  those  in  his  possession.  Ori- 
ginally about  four  inches  thick,  they  had  suffered  greatly  from 
corrosion  and  other  causes,  and  no  sooner  had  thev  been 
exposed  to  the  air,  when  thev  began  to  crack  and  to  crum- 
ble, offering  no  small  difficulty  to  their  safe  removal  to 
Mosul.  Within  five  davs  the  whole  twisted  and  bent  mass 
was  uncovered  and  packed  in  proper  cases  large  enough  to 
take  in  the  full  length  of  this  remarkable  monument.  Sixty 
feet  away  to  the  northwest  a  second  set  of  bronze  strips 
was  disclosed,  half  the  size  of  the  former,  and  in  several  other 


208 


EXPLORATIONS   IX   BIBLE  LANDS 


characteristic  features  differing  trom  it.  It  was,  however,  so 
much  injured  from  the  dampness  of  the  soil  in  which  it  had 
been  hidden  for  more  than  2500  years,  that  it  fell  to  pieces 
immediately  after  its  discovery.  These  ornamented  bronze 
plates  had  once  covered  the  cedar  gates  of  a  large  Assvrian 
building.  Kach  leaf  of  the  first-mentioned  better-preserved 
monument  consisted  of  seven   panels  eight  feet  long,  and 


Part  or  a  Bronze  Panel  trom  the  Great  Palace  Gate  ot  Balavvat 

richlv  embossed  with  double  rows  of  figures  surrounded  bv 
a  border  of  rosettes.  The  plates  represent  a  variety  of  sub- 
jects taken  from  the  life  and  campaigns  of  a  king,  who 
according  to  the  accompanving  inscription  was  no  other  than 
Shalmaneser  11.^      The  ancient  town  buried  under  the  rub- 

^  The  publication  of  this  important  monument  was  undertaken  in  188  I  by 
the  Society  of  BibHcal  Archaeology,  but  for  some  reason  it  has  never  been  fin- 
ished. Comp.  "The  Bronze  Ornaments  of  the  Palace  Gates  of  Balawat," 
edited,  with  an  introduction,  by  Samuel  Birch,  with  descriptions  and  transla- 
tions by  Theophilus  G.  Pinches,  parts  i.— iv.,  72  plates,  London. 


DURING   lOTii  CENTURY :   ASSYRIA    AND   BABYLONIA      209 

bish  heap  of  Balawat  was  called  Imgur-Bel.  It  had  been 
chosen  by  Ashurnasirapal  II.  as  the  site  for  one  of  his  pal- 
aces, restored  and  completed  by  his  son  and  successor,  Shal- 
maneser. 

By  means  of  tunnels  Rassam  extended  his  excavations  to 
various  sections  of  the  interesting  mound,  at  one  place  com- 
ing upon  the  ruins  of  a  small  temple,  at  the  entrance  of 
which  stood  a  huge  marble  coffer.  The  latter  contained  two 
beautiful  tablets  of  the  same  material  covered  with  identical 
inscriptions  of  Ashurnasirapal ;  a  similar  third  tablet  was 
lying  upon  an  altar  in  its  neighborhood,  and  fragments  of 
others  were  scattered  among  the  debris.  Exaggerated  ru- 
mors of  this  "  great  find  "  spread  rapidly.  Some  credulous 
people  insisted  that  a  treasure-chest  full  of  gold  had  been 
brought  to  light,  while  others  believed  that  the  very  stone 
tablets  of  Moses  inscribed  with  the  Ten  Commandments 
had  been  discovered.  Great  excitement  was  the  result  in 
the  trenches,  and  new  riots  broke  out  in  the  villages.  The 
large  quantity  of  human  bones  constantly  unearthed  tended 
only  to  increase  the  general  irritation,  and  to  inflame  all 
slumbering  passions.  After  a  little  while  Rassam  found  it 
useless  to  contend  longer  against  ignorance  and  fanaticism. 
As  soon  as  he  had  cleared  the  little  chamber  entirely,  he 
abandoned  his  trenches  at  Balawat,  convinced  that  a  thor- 
ough examination  of  the  whole  remarkable  site  was  an  abso- 
lute impossibility  for  the  time  being. 

The  discovery  of  such  a  unique  specimen  of  ancient  met- 
allurgy as  the  bronze  gates  of  Imgur-Bel  had  well  inaugu- 
rated the  resumption  of  Rassam's  researches  in  the  Assyrian 
mounds.  Nearv  500  workmen  were  occupied  at  the  same 
time,  to  continue  the  British  excavations  at  Qoyunjuk  and 
Nimrud.  The  most  promising  space  of  the  palaces  of 
Sennacherib  and  Ashurbanapal,  practically  stripped  of  only 
their  bas-reliefs  and  larger  objects  of  art  by  the  early  ex- 
plorers,  had   been    subjected    by   Smith    to    a   more  careful 


210  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

examination.  The  quick  results  of  his  labors  have  been 
treated  above.  To  extricate  more  of  the  precious  fragments 
from  the  royal  library,  it  became  necessary  to  remove  all 
the  debris  thrown  in  the  excavated  halls,  or  without  system 
heaped  upon  some  unexplored  part  of  the  ruin.  The  large 
pillars  of  earth  left  untouched  by  Layard  and  Rassam  in  the 
centres  of  the  different  rooms  (comp.  p.  115)  and  every  en- 
closing wall  likely  to  contain  relics  of  the  past  were  torn 
down.  The  number  of  tablets  obtained  in  the  end  were  not 
as  great  as  Smith  had  expected.  Instead  of  the  20,000  trag- 
ments  calculated  by  him  to  remain  buried  in  the  unexca- 
vated  portions  of  the  palace  of  Sennacherib,  scarcely  2000 
were  gathered  by  Rassam  from  the  two  buildings  after  five 
years'  labors.^  But  an  important  and  nearly  perfect  decagon 
prism  in  terra-cotta  inscribed  with  the  annals  of  Ashurbana- 
pal"  was  found  in  a  solid  brick  wall  of  the  north  palace, 
and  no  less  than  four  fine  barrel-cylinders  of  Sennacherib,^ 
covered  with  identical  records,  were  taken  from  the  south- 
west palace  in  rapid  succession. 

The  results  from  the  trenches  of  Nimrud  were  rather 
meagre.  :ln  resuming  the  exploration  of  the  two  temples 
discovered  bv  Layard  near  the  northwest  edge  of  the  elevated 
ruin,  Rassam  unearthed  a  marble  altar,  and  several  inscribed 
marble  seats  still  standing  in  their  original  positions ;  he 
gathered  a  few  bas-reliefs,  a  number  of  carved  stones,  and 
clay  tablets,  and  filled  more  than  half  a  dozen  baskets  with 
fragments  of  enamelled  tiles.,.   But  here  as  well  as  in  other 

^  All  the  tablets  and  fragments  so  far  obtained  by  the  British  Museum  from 
the  royal  library  of  Nineveh  were  made  accessible  to  scientific  research  through 
C.  Bezold's  fine  "  Catalogue  of  the  Cuneiform  Tablets  in  the  Kouyunjik  Col- 
lection of  the  British  Museum,"   5  vols.,  London,   1889-99. 

-  Two  fragmentary  and  crumbling  copies  of  this  important  monument  had 
been  discovered  by  Rassam  in  the  same  palace  as  early  as  1854.  Comp. 
p.   136,  above. 

^  One  of  them  is  preserved  in  the  Imperial  Ottoman  Museum  at  Constan- 
tinople. 


DURING   lOT'i  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      211 

parts  of  the  country  his  work  bore  more  the  character  of  a 
gleaning  following  the  rich  harvest  which  he  with  Layard 
had  gathered  from  the  same  ruin  fields  a  quarter  of  a  century 
before.  Notwithstanding  all  his  serious  efforts  to  make 
other  startling  discoveries  like  that  which  had  crowned  his 
first  year's  labors  at  Balawat,  and  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  the  excavations  at  Nimrud  and  Ooyunjuk,  at  Qal'at 
Shirgat,  and  other  Assyrian  mounds,  never  ceased  entirely 
during  the  five  years  which  he  spent  again  in  the  service  of 
the  British  Museum,  his  great  expectations  were  not  to  be 
realized.  For  a  little  while,  in  1879,  it  had  seemed  as  if 
Rassam  would  be  able  to  accomplish  what  all  the  great 
Assyrian  excavators  before  him  had  tried  in  vain  —  the 
partial  exploration  of  Nebi  YCinus.  Layard  had  managed 
through  one  of  his  overseers  to  dig  for  a  few  days  in  the 
courtyard  of  a  Moslem  house,  proving  the  existence  of 
buildings  and  monuments  of  Adadnirari  III.,  Sennacherib 
and  Esarhaddon  in  the  interior  of  this  second  large  ruin 
of  Nineveh.  In  1852,  Hilmi  Pasha,  then  governor  of 
Mosul,  had  excavated  there  eight  or  nine  months  for  the 
Ottoman  government,  discovering  two  large  winged  bulls, 
several  bas-reliefs,  and  an  important  marble  slab,  commonly 
known  among  Assyriologists  as  "  Sennacherib  Constanti- 
nople." ^  But  since  then  nobody  had  made  another  move 
to  disclose  the  secrets  of  Nebi  Yianus.  Rassam  went  qui- 
etly and  cautiously  to  work  by  making  friends  among  the 
different  classes  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  village,  which  occu- 
pied nearly  the  whole  mound.  With  infinite  patience  and 
energy  he  gradually  overcame  the  opposition  of  the   most 

^  This  monument  disappeared  suddenly  from  tlie  collections  of  the  Impe- 
rial Museum  between  1873  ^^'^  ^^75  under  Dethier's  administration.  Comp. 
Hilprecht  in  Zeitschrift  fiir  Assyriologie,  vol.  xiii.,  pp.  322-326.  Within 
the  last  few  months  I  have  been  able  to  trace  the  lost  marble  slab  to  the  shores 
of  England,  where  at  some  future  day  it  mav  possibly  be  rediscovered  in 
the  halls  of  the  British  Museum. 
16 


212  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

influential  and  fanatic  circles,  succeeding  even  in  winning 
the  confidence  and  assistance  of  the  guardians  of  the  holy 
shrine  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  the  prophet  Jonah. 
Well-to-do  landowners  began  to  offer  him  their  courtyards 
for  trial-trenches  without  asking  for  an  indemnity  or  remu- 
neration ;  others,  who  were  in  poorer  circumstances,  were 
ready  to  sell  him  their  miserable  huts  for  a  small  sum.  If 
he  had  possessed  money  enough,  he  "  could  have  bought 
half  of  the  village  for  a  mere  trifle."  Many  of  the  labor- 
ers whom  he  employed  at  Qoyunjuk  had  been  prudently 
chosen  from  Nebi  Yunus.  It  was  only  natural,  therefore, 
that  they  should  faithfully  stand  by  their  master,  strength- 
ening his  hands  in  the  new  undertaking  at  their  own  village. 
One  morning  operations  were  hopefully  started  at  the  great 
ruin.  In  the  beginning  everything  went  on  very  well.  But 
before  his  tentative  examination  could  have  yielded  any 
satisfactory  results,  the  jealousy  and  intrigues  of  some  evil- 
disposed  individuals,  who  brought  their  influence  to  bear 
upon  the  local  authorities  of  Mosul  and  upon  the  Minister 
of  Public  Instruction  at  Constantinople,  caused  the  tempo- 
rary suspension  of  his  excavations,  soon  followed  by  the 
entire  annihilation  of  all  his  dreams.^ 

With  Rassam's  return  to  England,  in  1882,  the  Assyrian 
excavations  of  the  nineteenth  centurv  have  practically  come 
to  an  end.  E.  A.  Wallis  Budge  of  the  British  Museum 
has  since  paid  repeated  visits  to  the  East  (1888,  1889, 
1 891),  looking  after  English  interests  also  at  Qoyunjuk 
and  neighboring  mounds.  Other  scholars  and  explorers 
(the  present  writer  included)  have  wandered  over  those 
barren  hills,  meditating  over  Nineveh's  davs  of  splendor, 
gazing  at  Calah's  sunken  walls,  resting  for  a  little  while  on 

^  Comp.  Hormuzd  Rassam,  "  Asshur  and  the  Land  of  Nimrod,"  New- 
York,  1897.  This  book  contains  a  narrative  ot  his  different  journeys  in 
Mesopotamia,  Assyria,  and  Babvlonia,  and  the  account  of  his  principal  discov- 
eries in  the  ruins  which  he  excavated. 


DURING   19TJI  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      213 

Ashur's  lonely  site.  But  no  expedition  has  pitched  its 
tents  again  with  the  roaming  tribes  between  the  Tigris  and 
the  Zab  ;  the  sounds  of  pickaxe  and  spade  have  long  ago 
died  away.  Only  now  and  then  a  stray  cuneiform  tablet  or 
an  inscribed  marble  slab,  accidentally  found  in  the  mounds 
when  a  house  is  built,  or  a  tomb  is  dug,  reminds  us  of  the 
great  possibilities  connected  with  methodical  researches  in 
those  distant  plains.  Much  more  remains  to  be  done,  be- 
fore the  resurrection  of  ancient  Assyria  will  be  accomplished. 
Hundreds  of  ruins  scarcely  yet  known  by  their  names  await 
the  explorer.  It  is  true,  not  all  of  them  will  yield  magnifi- 
cent palaces  and  lofty  temples,  gigantic  human-headed  bulls 
and  elaborate  sculptures.  But  whether  the  results  be  great 
or  small,  every  fragment  of  inscribed  clay  or  stone  will  tell 
a  story,  and  contribute  its  share  to  a  better  knowledge  of 
the  life  and  history,  of  the  art  and  literature,  of  that  pow- 
erful nation  which  conquered  Babylon,  transplanted  Israel, 
subdued  Egypt,  even  reached  Cyprus,  and  left  its  monu- 
ments carved  on  the  rocky  shores  of  the  Mediterranean. 


4 

METHODICAL    EXCAVATIONS    IN    BABYLONIA 

The  large  number  of  fine  monuments  of  art  which 
through  the  efforts  of  a  few  determined  explorers  had  been 
sent  from  the  districts  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  to  the 
national  collections  in  Paris  and  London,  came  almost  ex- 
clusively from  the  mounds  of  Assyria  proper.  Marble,  so 
liberally  used  as  a  decorative  element  and  building  material 
in  the  palaces  and  temples  of  the  empire  in  the  North, 
seemed  but  rarely^   to  have  been   emploved   by  the  inhabit- 

^   Marble,  sandstone  and  granite  as  building  materials  in  ancient  Babylonia 
were  found  to  any  great  extent  onlv   in  the  temple  ruin  of  Abu  Shahrain 


214  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

ants  of  the  alluvial  plain  in  the  South,  where  from  the 
earliest  times  clay  evidently  took  the  place  of  stone.  The 
tentative  excavations  of  Loftus  and  Taylor  in  ancient  Chal- 
dea  had  indeed  been  of  fundamental  importance.  They 
gave  us  a  first  glimpse  of  the  long  and  varied  history,  and 
of  the  peculiar  and  interesting  civilization  of  a  country  of 
which  we  knew  very  little  before  ;  they  even  revealed  to  us 
in  Babylonian  soil  the  existence  of  antiquities  considerably 
older  than  those  which  had  been  unearthed  at  Nimrud  and 
Qal'at  Shirgat;  but,  on  the  whole,  they  had  been  unpro- 
ductive of  those  striking  artistic  remains  which  without 
any  comment  from  the  learned  appeal  directly  to  the  mind 
of  intelligent  people.  The  decided  failure  of  Layard's 
attempts  at  Babylon  and  Nuffar,  and  the  widely  felt  disap- 
pointment with  regard  to  the  tangible  results  of  the  French 
excavations  under  Fresnel  and  Oppert  did  not  tend  to 
raise  the  Babylonian  mounds  in  the  public  estimation,  or  to 
induce  governments  and  private  individuals  to  send  new 
expeditions  into  a  country  half  under  water,  half  covered 
with  the  sand  of  the  desert,  and  completely  in  the  control  of 
lawless  and  ignorant  tribes. 

But  however  seriously  these  and  similar  considerations 
at  first  must  have  affected  the  plans  and  decisions  of  other 
explorers,  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  commencement  of 
methodical  excavations  in  Babylonian  ruins  was  doubtless 
the  brilliant  success  of  Botta,  Layard,  and  Rassam  in  the 
North,  which  for  a  long  while  distracted  the  general  atten- 
tion from  ancient  Chaldea.  Moreover,  the  epoch-making 
discovery  of  the  royal  library  of  Nineveh  provided  such  a 
vast  mass  of  choice  cuneiform  texts,  written  in  an  extremely 
neat  and  regular  script  on  well-prepared  and  carefully  baked 

(Eridu)  situated  in  a  depression  of  the  Arabian  desert,  where  stone  apparently 
was  as  easily  obtained  as  clay.  Comp.  pp.  178,  seqq.,  above.  In  the 
Seleucidan  and  Parthian  periods  under  foreign  influence,  stone  was  used  con- 
siderably more  all  over  Babylonia. 


DURING  19'iH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      215 

material,  and  at  the  same  time  representing  nearly  every 
branch  of  Assyrian  literature  —  precisely  what  the  first 
pioneers  of  the  young  science  needed  to  restore  the  dic- 
tionary and  to  establish  the  grammatical  laws  of  the  long- 
forgotten  language  —  that  the  few  unbaked  and  crum- 
bling tablets  from  the  South,  with  their  much  more  difficult 
writing  and  their  new  palsographical  problems,  with  their 
unknown  technical  phrases  and  their  comparatively  uninter- 
esting contents,  naturally  received  but  little  attention  in  the 
earlv  days  of  Assyriologv. 

It  is  true,  the  increasing  study  of  the  thousands  of  clay- 
books  from  Nineveh  demonstrated  more  and  more  the  fact 
that  the  great  literary  products  with  which  they  make  us 
acquainted  are  only  copies  of  Babylonian  originals ;  and 
the  subsequent  comparison  of  the  sculptured  monuments 
of  Assyria  with  the  seal-cylinders  and  other  often  mutilated 
objects  of  art  from  the  ruins  and  tombs  of  Chaldea  again  led 
scholars  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Persian  Gulf  as  the 
real  cradle  of  this  whole  remarkable  civilization.  But  a  new 
powerful  influence  was  needed  to  overcome  old  prejudices 
entirely  and  to  place  the  Babylonian  mounds  in  the  centre 
of  public  attention.  The  well-known  arch^ological  mines 
in  the  North,  which  had  seemed  to  yield  an  almost  inex- 
haustible supply  of  valuable  monuments,  began  gradually 
to  give  forth  less  abundantly  and  even  to  cease  altogether. 
The  sudden  death  of  George  Smith,  who  had  stimulated 
and  deepened  the  interest  of  the  religious  communities  of 
his  nation  in  cuneiform  research,  and  thereby  temporarily 
revived  the  old  enthusiasm  for  British  excavations  at  Oo- 
yunjuk,  marked  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  that  brief  but 
significant  period  which  bears  the  stamp  of  his  personality  as 
the  great  epigone  of  the  classical  age  of  Assyrian  exploration. 


216  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


FRENCH     EXCAVATIONS    AT    TELLO     UNDER    DE    SARZEC 

It  was  the  French  representative  at  Mosul  who  in  1842 
had  successfully  inaugurated  the  resurrection  of  the  palaces 
and  temples  of  Assyria  ;  and  it  was  another  French  represent- 
ative at  Basra  who  thirty-five  years  later  made  a  no  less  far- 
reaching  discovery  in  the  mounds  of  Chaldea,  which  opened 
the  second  great  period  in  the  history  of  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  exploration,  —  the  period  of  methodical  exca- 
vations in  the  ruins  of  Babylonia  proper.  In  January,  1877, 
Ernest  de  Sarzec,  a  man  of  tall  stature  and  expressive  fea- 
tures, then  about  forty  years  old,  combining  an  active 
mind  and  sharp  intellect  with  a  pronounced  taste  for  art  and 
archaeology,  and  through  his  previous  service  in  Egypt  and 
Abyssinia  well  versed  in  Oriental  manners  and  to  a  certain 
degree  familiar  with  the  life  of  the  desert,  was  transferred  to 
Basra  as  vice-consul  of  France. 

This  city,  situated  on  a  rich  alluvial  soil  of  recent  form- 
ation and  surrounded  by  luxuriant  gardens  and  palm- 
groves,  which  for  sixty  miles  on  both  sides  accompany  the 
grand  but  muddy  river  until  it  empties  into  the  Persian 
Gulf  near  the  light-house  of  Fao,  is  one  of  the  hottest  and 
most  unhealthy  places  in  the  whole  Turkish  empire.  The 
population  is  almost  exclusively  Mohammedan.  The  few 
European  merchants  and  representatives  of  foreign  govern- 
ments, who  live  as  a  small  colony  by  themselves  along 
the  west  bank  of  the  Shatt  el-' Arab,  outside  the  city  proper, 
suffer  more  or  less  from  fever  and  the  enervating  influence 
of  the  oppressive  climate.  An  occasional  ride  into  the 
desert,  with  its  bracing  air,  and  the  hunting  of  the  wild  boar, 
francolin,  and  bustard  are  the  general  means  by  which  the 
members  of  the  European  colony  try  to  keep  up  their 
energy  and  vitalitv  in  the  hot-house  atmosphere  of  this 
tropical  region.  But  such  an  aimless  life  was  very  little  to 
the  liking  of  De  Sarzec,  who  longed  for  a  more  serious 


DURING  IQTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      217 

occupation  to  fill  out  the  ample  time  left  him  by  the  slight 
duties  of  his  consular  position.  Being  stationed  near  the 
ruins  of  some  of  the  great  centres  of  ancient  civilization,  he 
decided  at  once  to  visit  the  sites  of  Babylon  and  El-Birs, 
and  to  devote  his  leisure  hours,  if  practicable,  to  the  explora- 
tion of  a  section  of  Southern  Babylonia. 

He  was  very  fortunate  to  find  a  trustworthy  councillor  in 
J.  Asfar,  a  prominent  native  Christian,  and  the  present 
hospitable  representative  of  the  Strick-Asfar  line  of  steam- 
boats plying  regularly  between  London  and  Basra.  The 
latter  had  formerlv  dealt  in  antiquities  and  was  person- 
ally acquainted  with  several  Arab  diggers,  who  continued 
to  keep  him  well  informed  as  to  the  most  promising  ruins 
between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris.  The  name  of 
Tello  had  recently  become  a  watchword  among  them  in 
consequence  of  the  discovery  of  inscribed  bricks  and  cones 
and  the  partly  inscribed  torso  of  a  fine  statue  of  Gudea  in 
diorite,^  said  to  have  come  from  these  ruins.'^  It  is  Asfar's 
merit  to  have  first  directed  the  attention  of  De  Sarzec  to 
this  remarkable  site  and  to  have  urged  him  to  lose  no  time 
in  examining  it  more  closely  and  in  securing  it  for  France.^ 
In  order  to  avoid  undesirable  public  attention,  the  French 
vice-consul  deemed  it  wise  for  the  present  not  to  apply  for 
the  necessary  firman  at  Constantinople,  but  to   begin   his 

^  Published  by  Lenormant,  Choix  de  Textes  Cuneiformes  ineJits,  Paris, 
1873-75,  p.  5,  no.  3,  and  in  George  Smitli,  "History  of  Babylonia," 
edited  by  A.  H.  Sayce,  London,   1877. 

^  No  sufficient  reasons  have  been  brought  forward,  however,  to  show  that 
this  torso  actually  came  from  Tello.  Mr.  Leonard  W.  King,  of  the  British 
Museum,  whom  I  asked  for  information  as  to  its  place  ot  origin,  was  unable^ 
to  throw  any  light  on  this  question.      Comp.  p.  221,  note  i,  below. 

^  For  valuable  information  as  to  the  immediate  causes  which  led  to  De 
Sarzec' s  great  discovery,  I  am  obliged  to  his  friend,  Mr.  Asfar,  who  had 
preserved  his  deep  interest  in  Babylonian  excavations  as  late  as  1900,  when 
the  present  writer  spent  nearly  three  weeks  at  Basra  and  its  neighborhood, 
frequently  enjoying  his  unbounded  hospitality. 


218  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

operations  as  quietly  as  possible,  somewhat  in  the  manner 
followed  by  the  first  explorers  of  Assyria.  Moreover,  the 
whole  of  Southern  Babylonia  was  then  in  a  kind  of  semi- 
independent  state  under  Nasir  Pasha,  the  great  chief  of  the 
Muntefik(j),  who  built  the  town  of  Nasriye  called  after 
him,  and  was  appointed  the  first  wali  of  Basra.  It  was 
therefore  necessary  to  secure  his  good  will  and  protection 
for  any  scientific  undertaking  that  might  be  carried  on  in 
regions  where  the  law  of  the  desert  prevailed,  and  Nasir's 
power  was  the  only  acknowledged  authority.  Immediately 
after  his  arrival  on  the  Persian  Gulf,  De  Sarzec  entered  into 
personal  communication  with  the  latter  and  established  those 
friendly  relations  by  means  of  which  he  was  able  to  travel 
safely  everywhere  among  his  tribes  and  to  excavate  at  Tello 
or  any  other  ruin  as  long  as  Nasir  retained  his  position. 

In  March  of  1877,  after  a  brief  reconnoitring  tour  along 
the  banks  of  the  Shatt  el-Hai,  we  find  De  Sarzec  already  in 
the  midst  of  his  work,  commencing  that  series  of  brief  but 
successful  campaigns  which  were  soon  to  surprise  the  scien- 
tific world,  and  to  make  Tello,  previously  scarcely  known 
by  name  in  Europe,  the  "  Pompeii  of  the  early  Babylonian 
antiquity."  ^  For  very  apparent  reasons  De  Sarzec  did  not 
write  the  history  of  his  various  expeditions  extending  over 
a  considerable  part  of  the  last  twenty-four  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  so  that  it  becomes  extremely  difficult  for  us 
to  gather  all  the  facts  and  data  necessary  to  obtain  a  clear  con- 
ception of  the  genesis  and  maturing  of  his  plans,  of  the  pre- 
cise results  of  each  year's  exploration,  of  the  difficulties  which 
he  encountered,  and  of  the  methods  and  ways  by  which  he 
overcame  all  the  obstacles,  and  in  the  end  accomplished  his 
memorable  task. 

^  Thus  styled  by  Heuzey  in  the  introduction  to  his  Catalogue  de  la  Sculp- 
ture Chald'eenne  au  Musee  du  Louvre,  Paris,  1901,  the  galley-proofs  of 
which  he  kindly  placed  at  my  disposal  in  January,  1901,  long  before  the  book 
itself  appeared. 


DURING  lOTH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       219 

His  excavations  were  carried  on  in  eleven  distinct  cam- 
paigns, generally  lasting  from  three  to  four  months  in 
winter  and  spring.  With  regard  to  the  three  great  intervals 
lying  between  them,  they  might  be  grouped  together  into 
four  different  periods,  each  of  which  is  characterized  by  some 
more  or  less  conspicuous  discovery:  i.  1877,  1878,  1880, 
1881;  II.  1888,  1889;  III.  1893,  1894,  1895;  IV-  i^9^> 
1900.  But  as  the  excavations  conducted  by  De  Sarzec  at 
Tello  in  the  later  years  consisted  mainly  in  deepening  and 
extending  the  trenches  previously  opened  at  the  two  prin- 
cipal elevations  of  the  ruins,  a  mere  chronological  enumer- 
ation of  all  his  single  discoveries  would  neither  do  justice 
to  the  explorer,  nor  enable  us  to  comprehend  the  import- 
ance of  the  results  obtained  in  their  final  totality,  as  well 
as  in  their  mutual  relation  to  each  other.  It  will  there- 
fore be  preferable  to  consider  the  excavations  from  an  histor- 
ical and  a  topographical  point  of  view  at  the  same  time.  In 
this  way  we  shall  be  enabled  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the  sub- 
ject and  to  avoid  unnecessary  repetitions.  Accordingly  we 
distinguish  three  phases  in  the  excavations  of  De  Sarzec : 
I.  His  preliminary  work  of  determining  the  character  of  the 
whole  ruins  by  trial  trenches,  1877-78  ;  2.  The  excavation 
of  a  Seleucidan  palace  and  of  ancient  Babylonian  remains, 
especially  a  fine  collection  of  large  statues  at  the  principal 
mound  of  Tello,  i88o~8i;  3.  The  unearthing  of  construc- 
tions, sculptures  and  inscriptions  of  a  still  earlier  civilization 
in  another  prominent  mound  of  the  same  ruins,  1888-89, 
1893-95,  1898,  1900. 

I.  The  ruins  of  Tello,  or  more  correctly  Tell-L6,^  are  sit- 
uated in  a  district  which  is  half  the  year  a  desert  and  the 
other  half  a  swamp,  about  eight  miles  to  the  northeast  of 
Shatra,  a  small  Turkish  town  and  the  seat  of  a  qaimmaqam, 

^  The  meaning  and  etymology  of  Tello  is  obscure.  An  attempt  by  the 
late  Dr.  Schefer  of  Paris  to  explain  the  name  is  found  in  Heuzey,  Decou- 
vertes  en  Chald'ee  par  Ernest  de  Sarzec,  p.  8,  note  i . 


220  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

or  sub-governor.  They  include  a  number  of  higher  and  lower 
elevations  stretching  from  northwest  to  southeast  for  about 
four  English  miles  along  the  left  bank  of  a  large  dry  canal 
that  represents  either  the  ancient  bed  or  a  branch  of  the 
Shatt  el-Ha'i,  from  which  in  a  straight  line  they  are  distant 
a  little  over  three  English  miles.  The  two  principal  mounds 
of  the  whole  site  are  designated  as  mounds  A  and  B  in 
the  following  sketch.  The  former  and  smaller  one  (A) 
rises  only  fifty  feet  above  the  plain  at  the  extreme  north- 
west end  of  the  ruins,  while  the  latter  (B)  is  nearly  fifty-six 
feet  high  and  about  650  feet  to  the  southeast  of  it.  These 
and  the  many  other  smaller  mounds  constituting  the  ruins 
of  Tello  consist  as  a  rule  of  an  artificial  massive  terrace 
of  unbaked  brick,  upon  and  around  which  the  scattered 
remains  of  one  or  more  ancient  buildings  once  occupying 
the  platform  are  mixed  with  the  sand  of  the  desert  into 
one  shapeless  mass. 

In  January,  1877,  at  his  very  first  ride  over  the  ruins, 
De  Sarzec  recognized  the  value  of  this  large  archaeological 
field,  scarcely  yet  touched  by  the  professional  Arab  digger, 
from  the  many  fragments  of  inscribed  cones  and  bricks,  sculp- 
tures and  vases  which  covered  the  surface.  Among  other 
objects  of  interest  he  picked  up  the  magnificent  piece  of  a 
large  statue  in  dolerite  inscribed  on  the  shoulder.  After  a 
few  minutes  he  had  gathered  evidence  enough  to  convince 
him  that  he  stood  on  a  prominent  site  of  great  antiquity. 
The  fragment  of  the  statue  was  interpreted  by  him  as  hav- 
ing rolled  down  from  Mound  A,  at  the  foot  of  which  it  was 
discovered,  thus  serving  as  the  first  indication  of  an  impor- 
tant building  which  probably  was  concealed  in  its  interior. 
This  starting  point  for  his  excavations  once  being  given,  he 
hired  all  the  workmen  whom  he  could  obtain  from  the  wan- 
dering tribes,  and  set  to  work  to  determine  the  character  and 
contents  of  the  hill  in  question.  A  few  weeks  of  digging 
revealed  the  fact  indicated  above,  that  the  whole  mound 


DURING  IQTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA       221 

consisted  of  a  platform  of  unbaked  bricks  crowned  by  an 
edifice  of  considerable  size  and  extent.  But  he  was  not  satis- 
fied with  this  general  result.  Though  the  lack  of  drinking 
water  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  ruins  and  the  prover- 
bial insecurity  of  the  whole  region  did  not  allow  him  to  pitch 
his  tents  anywhere  near  the  mounds,  he  was  by  no  means 
discouraged.  During  all  his  several  expeditions  to  Tello  he 
established  his  headquarters  at  Mantar-Qaraghol,  in  the  midst 
of  the  green  fields  embellishing  the  left  bank  of  the  Shatt 
el-Ha'i,  whence  he  walked  or  rode  every  morning  to  the  ruins, 
to  return  in  the  evening  to  the  waters  of  the  river.  After 
seven  months  of  successful  excavations  conducted  during  the 
springs  of  1877  and  1878,  he  obtained  a  leave  of  absence 
from  his  duties  at  Basra,  and  sailed  to  France  as  the  bearer 
of  important  news  and  with  the  first  fruit  of  his  archaeologi- 
cal researches. 

By  following  a  ravine  ending  at  the  point  where  the  fine 
sculptured  fragment  was  discovered,  he  had  reached  a  kind 
of  deep  recess  in  the  outer  northeast  wall  of  the  building 
which  stood  on  the  platform.  No  sooner  did  the  work- 
men begin  to  remove  the  debris  with  which  it  was  filled, 
when  the  lower  part  of  a  great  statue  in  dolerite,  partly  cov- 
ered with  a  long  cuneiform  inscription,  rose  gradually  out  of 
the  depth.  It  became  at  once  evident  that  the  shoulder  piece 
bearing  the  name  of  Gudea,  referred  to  above,  was  a  portion 
of  this  extraordinary  monument.  De  Sarzec  having  no 
means  at  his  disposal  to  remove  the  heavy  torso,  took  a 
squeeze  of  the  inscription  and  buried  the  precious  relic  again 
for  a  future  occasion.  Two  years  later,  when  Rassam  visited 
Tello,  he  found  its  upper  part  exposed  again  by  the  Arabs.^ 

^  Comp.  Rassam,  "  Asshur  and  the  Land  of  Nimrod,"  New  York,  1897, 
p.  276,  on  the  one  side,  and  De  Sarzec  and  Heuzev,  Decouvertes  en  Chaldee, 
p.  5,  on  the  other.  The  Bridsh  explorer  asserts  that  this  first  statue  unearthed 
by  De  Sarzec  is  identical  with  the  one  previously  discovered  and  mutilated  by 
the  natives,  who  sold  the  bust  and  arm  to  George  Smith.    But  this  statement 


222 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


After  the  French  consul  had  ascertained  the  general  char- 
acter of  Mound  A  and  its  probable  contents,  he  devoted  the 

rest  of  his  time  to  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  other  parts  of  the 
ruins  by  placing  his   workmen 
in  long  rows  over  the  whole  sur- 
face of  the  enormous  site.    This 
peculiar  method,  which  would 
have  utterly  failed  at   Babylon, 
NufFar,  Warka,  and  other  simi- 
lar mounds,  produced  important 
results  at  a  ruin  as  little  settled 
in  later  times    as  Tello   subse- 
quently proved  to  be.   De  Sarzec 
unearthed  many  fragments  of  in- 
scribed   vases    and    sculptures, 
several  inscribed    door-sockets, 
a   large    number   of  cuneiform 
tablets,  the  bronze  horn  of  a  bull 
in    life-size,    etc.      He   exposed 
large  columns  of  bricks  of  the 
time  of  Gudea,  and  found  not  a 
'  few  peculiar  cubical  brick  struc- 
tures generally  concealing  a  vo- 
tive tablet  of  Gudea  or  Dungi. 
The  latter   was   placed   over   a 
small  copper  or  bronze  statue  of 
a  man   or   a    bull,  which    often 
terminated  in  the  form  of  a  nail. 
Above  all,  he  brought  to  light  one  of  the  earliest  bas-reliefs 

is  wrong,  as  the  inscription  on  the  hack  of  De  Sarzec' s  statue  is  complete. 
In  fact,  it  must  be  regarded  as  doubtful  if  the  torso  obtained  by  Smith  belongs 
to  any  of  the  statues  or  fragments  discovered  by  De  Sarzec  at  Tello,  as  long  as 
this  question  has  not  been  settled  by  means  of  casts  of  the  pieces  in  the  British 
Museum  sent  to  Paris  for  examination. 


Votive  Statuette  in  Copper 

Inscribed  ivhh  the  name  of  Gudea, 
about  syoo  B.   C. 


DURING  lOTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      223 

of  ancient  Chaldea  so  far  known/  the  first  two  fragments  of 
the  famous  "  stele  of  vultures  "  erected  by  King  Eannatum, 
and  two^  large  terra-cotta  cylinders  of  Gudea  in  tolerably 
good  preservation.  Each  of  the  latter  is  nearly  two  feet  long 
and  a  little  over  one  foot  in  diameter,  and  is  inscribed  with 
about  2000  lines  of  early  cuneiform  writing,  thus  forming 
the  longest'inscriptions  of  that  ancient  period  so  far  known. 

On  his  arrival  at  home  (July  28,  1878),  De  Sarzec  was 
most  fortunate  in  finding  the  precise  man  whom  he  needed 
in  order  to  see  his  work  placed  upon  a  permanent  basis. 
Waddington,  well  known  in  scientific  circles  for  his  numis- 
matic researches,  was  then  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
Deeply  interested  as  he  was  in  the  enthusiastic  reports  of 
his  consul,  he  referred  him  for  a  critical  examination  of  his 
excavated  treasures  to  Leon  Heuzey,  the  distinguished 
curator  of  the  Department  of  Oriental  Antiquities  at  the 
Louvre,  who  at  once  recognized  that  here  were  the  first 
true  specimens  of  that  original,  ancient  Chaldean  art  to 
which  De  Longperier  tentatively  had  ascribed  two  statu- 
ettes previously  obtained  by  the  National  Museum  of 
France.  From  this  moment  dates  the  archaeological  alli- 
ance and  personal  friendship  between  De  Sarzec  and  Heuzey 
which  in  the  course  of  the  next  twenty  years  bore  the  rich- 
est fruit  for  Assyriology  and  was  of  fundamental  importance 
for  the  gradual  restoration  of  a  lost  page  in  the  history  of 
ancient  Oriental  art  and  civilization. 

On  the  recommendation  of  Heuzey  the  antiquities  already 
discovered  at  Tello  were  deposited  in  the  Louvre  with  a 
view  of  their  final  acquisition  by  the  nation,  while  De  Sarzec 
was  requested  to  return  quietly  to  the  ruins  and  to  develop 

^   Comp.  Heuzey,  Decouvcrtes,  pi.   i,no.   i. 

^  The  third  one,  the  existence  of  which  was  d'vined  by  Amiaud  from  cer- 
tain indications  contained  in  the  cuneiform  texts  of  the  first  two  cylinders,  has 
been  found  since  by  the  Arabs.  Comp.  Scheil  in  Maspero's  Recueil,  vol. 
xxi  (1899),  P-   '  24* 


224  EXPLORAriONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

his  promising  investigations  at  his  own  responsibility  and 
expense,  until  the  proper  moment  for  action  had  come  on 
the  side  of  the  government.  At  the  same  time  the  neces- 
sarv  steps  were  taken  in  Constantinople  to  secure  the  impe- 
rial firman  which  established  French  priority  over  a  ruin 
soon  to  attract  a  more  general  attention.  As  we  shall  see 
later  in  connection  with  the  contemporaneous  British  exca- 
vations in  the  vilavet  of  Baghdad,  this  cautious  but  resolute 
proceeding  by  a  few  initiated  men,  who  carefully  guarded 
the  secret  of  De  Sarzec's  great  discovery,  saved  Tello  from 
the  hands  of  Rassam,  long  the  shrewd  and  successful  rival 
of  French  explorers  in  Assvria  and  Babylonia. 

2.  On  the  2ist  of  January,  1880,  De  Sarzec  was  back 
again  at  his  encampment  near  the  Shatt  el-Ha'i,  this  time 
accompanied  by  his  young  bride,  who  henceforth  gener- 
ally shared  the  pleasures  and  deprivations  of  her  husband 
in  the  desert.  During  this  and  the  following  campaign 
(November  12,  1880,  to  March  15,  1881)  he  concentrated 
his  energy  on  a  thorough  examination  of  the  great  building 
hidden  under  Mound  A  and  of  its  immediate  environments, 
discovering  no  less  than  nine  ^  large  statues  in  dolerite, 
besides  several  statuettes  in  stone  and  metal,  fragments  of 
precious  bas-reliefs,  an  onyx  vase  of  Naram-Sin,  and  numer- 
ous inscriptions  and  small  objects  of  art.  It  is  true,  all  the 
statues  hitherto  unearthed  were  previouslv  decapitated,  and 
in  some  instances  otherwise  mutilated,  but  three  detached 
heads,  soon  afterwards  rescued  by  De  Sarzec  from  different 
parts  of  the  ruins,  enabled  us  to  gain  a  clearer  conception  of 

^  According  to  Heuzev,  in  the  introduction  to  his  Catalogue  de  la  Sculp- 
ture Chaldeenne  au  Musee  du  Louvre,  Paris,  1902.  De  Sarzec,  in  his  brief 
description  of  his  first  four  campaigns  {D'ecouvertes  en  Chaldee,  p.  6)  men- 
tions the  discovery  of  a  tenth  (or  including  the  lower  part  of  a  statue  unearthed 
in  1877,  an  eleventh)  statue,  and  speaks  of  only  two  detached  heads  then  found 
by  him.  This  difference  in  counting  is  due  to  the  size  and  fragmentary  con- 
dition of  some  of  the  statues  and  objects  discovered. 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      225 

the  unique  type  of  these  priceless  specimens  of  ancient 
Babylonian  art. 

With  the  exception  of  the  six  hottest  months  of  the  year, 
which  he  spent  in  the  cooler  j^t^^^^j  ^  of  Baghdad,  to  restore 
his  health  affected  by  the  usual  swamp  fevers  of  'Iraq,  he 
continued  his  labors  at  Tello  until  the  spring  of  1 88  i,  find- 
ing even  older  remains  below  the  foundations  of  the  above- 
mentioned  palace,  when  the  threatening  attitude  of  the 
Muntefik(j)  tribes,  and  the  growing  insecurity  of  his  own 
party  drove  him  away  from  the  ruins.  At  the  end  of  May 
in  the  following  year  he  arrived  at  Paris  a  second  time  with 
a  most  valuable  collection  of  antiquities,  which  by  special 
ira^^e  from  the  Sultan  he  had  been  allowed  to  carry  away 
with  him  as  his  personal  property. 

The  first  announcement  of  De  Sarzec's  fundamental  dis- 
covery before  the  French  Academy,"  and  Oppert's  impres- 
sive address  at  the  Fifth  International  Congress  of  Oriental- 
ists at  Berlin,^  opening  with  the  significant  words  :  "  Since 
the  discovery  of  Nineveh  ...  no  discovery  has  been 
made  which  compares  in  importance  with  the  recent  excava- 
tions in  Chaldea,"  had  fairly  prepared  the  scientific  world 
for  the  extraordinary  character  and  the  rare  value  of  these 
ancient  monuments.  But  when  they  were  finally  unpacked 
and    for    the    first  time    exhibited    in    the  galleries  of  the 

^  Subterranean  cool  rooms  which  are  provided  in  every  better  house  of 
Baghdad  in  order  to  enable  the  inhabitants  to  escape  the  often  intolerable  heat 
of  the  daytime  during  the  summer  months. 

2  Published  in  Revue  Archeologique,  new  series,  vol.  xlii,  Nov.,  i88i, 
pp.  56  and  259-272  :  Les  Fouilles  de  Chaldee  ;  communication  d"  une  lettre  de 
M.  de  Sarzec  par  Leon  Heuzey. 

*  Die  franzosischen  Ausgrabungen  in  Chaldaa,  pp.  235-248  of  Abhand- 
lungen  des  Berliner  Orientalisten-  Congresses.  A  useful  synopsis  of  the  early 
literature  on  De  Sarzec's  discoveries  was  given  by  Hommel  in  Die  Semitischen 
V'dlker  und  Sprachen,  Leipzig,  1883,  p.  459,  note  104,  to  which  may  be 
added  an  article  by  Georges  Perrot  in  Revue  des  Deux-Mondes,  Oct.  i,  1882, 
pp.   525,  seqq. 


226  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Louvre,  the  general  expectation  was  far  surpassed  by  the 
grand  spectacle  which  presented  itself  to  the  eyes  of  a 
representative  assembly.  This  first  fine  collection  of  early 
Babylonian  sculptures  was  received  in  Paris  with  an  enthu- 
siasm second  only  to  the  popular  outburst  which  greeted 
Botta's  gigantic  winged  bulls  from  the  palace  of  Sargon 
thirty-six  years  previously.^  On  the  proposition  of  Jules 
Ferry,  then  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  the  French 
Assembly  voted  an  exceptional  credit  to  the  National 
Museum  for  the  immediate  acquisition  of  all  the  monuments 
from  Tello,  while  the  Academie  des  Inscriptions  et  Belles 
Lettres  added  a  much  more  coveted  prize  to  this  pecuniary 
remuneration  on  the  side  of  the  government,  by  appointing 
the  successful  explorer  a  member  of  the  Institute  of  France. 
An  Oriental  section  was  created  in  the  Louvre,  with  Leon 
Heuzey,  the  faithful  and  energetic  supporter  of  De  Sarzec's 
plans  and  endeavors,  as  its  director.  Under  the  auspices 
of  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  and  assisted  in  the 
deciphering  of  the  often  difficult  cuneiform  inscriptions  by 
Oppert,  Amiaud,  and  lately  by  Thureau-Dangin,  Heuzey 
began  that  magnificent  publication  '"  in  which  he  made  the 
new  discoveries  accessible  to  science,  and  laid  the  solid  foun- 
dation for  a  methodical  treatment  of  ancient  Chaldean  art, 
by  applying  fixed  arch^ological  laws  to  the  elucidation  of 
the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  monuments. 

The  palace  excavated  in  Mound  A  does  not  belong  to  the 
Babylonian  period  proper.  But  in  order  to  understand  the 
topographical  conditions  and  certain  changes  which  took 
place  in  the  upper  strata  of  Tello,  it  will  be  necessary  to  in- 
clude it  in  our  brief  description  of  the  principal  results  ob- 
tained by  De  Sarzec  at  this  most  conspicuous  part  of  the 
ruins.     The  massive  structure  of  crude  bricks  upon  which 

^  Comp.  pp.  79,  seqq.,  abovx. 

''■  Decouvertes  en  Chald'ee par  Ernest  de  Sarzec,  published  by  Leon  Heuzey, 
large  folio,  Paris,  1884,  se/jg.      The  work  is  not  yet  complete. 


DURING  19TU  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      227 

the  building  was  erected  forms  an  immense  terrace  over 
600  feet  square  and  40  feet  high.  As  certain  walls  discov- 
ered in  it  prove  that  this  lofty  and  substantial  base  was  not 
the  work  of  one  builder,  we  have  to  distinguish  between 
an  earlier  substratum  and  later  additions.  I'he  crumbling 
remains  of  the  large  edifice  lying  on  the  top  of  it  form  a 
rectangular  parallelogram  about  175  feet  long  and  100  feet 
wide.  Only  two  of  its  sides,  the  principal  and  slightly 
curved  northeast,  and  the  smaller  but  similar  northwest 
facade,  exhibit  any  attempt  at  exterior  ornamentation,  consist- 
ing of  those  simple  dentated  recesses  and  half-columns  with 
which  we  are  familiar  from  Loftus'  excavations  at  Warka. 
As  to  its  ground  plan,  the  building  does  not  essentially  differ 
from  the  principle  and  arrangement  observed  in  the  Assyr- 
ian palace  of  Khorsabad,  or  in  the  Seleucido-Parthian  palace 
recently  completely  excavated  by  the  present  writer  at  the 
ruins  of  Nuffar.  Here  as  there  we  have  a  number  of  dif- 
ferent rooms  and  halls  —  in  the  latter  case  thirty-six  — 
around  a  grouped  number  of  open  courts^  and  around  as 
many  different  centres. 

The  walls  of  this  edifice,  in  some  places  still  ten  feet  high, 
are  built  of  ancient  Babylonian  bricks,  laid  in  mortar  or  bitu- 
men and  generally  bearing  the  name  and  titles  of  Gudea,  a 
famous  ruler  of  that  Southern  district,  who  lived,  however, 
about  twenty-five  hundred  years  prior  to  the  days  when  his 
material  was  used  a  second  time.  Each  of  the  four  exterior 
walls,  on  an  average  four  feet  thick,  has  one  entrance,  but 
no  trace  of  any  window.  The  northeast  fa9ade  originally  had 
two  gates,  the  principal  one  of  which,  for  some  unknown 
reason,  was  soon  afterwards  closed  again.  The  inscribed 
bricks  used  for  this  purpose,  and  similar  ones  taken  from 
certain  constructions  in  the  interior,  are  modelled  after  the 

^  The  palace  of  Tello  has    three  courts  of  different  dimensions.      The 
smallest  is  nearly  square,  measuring  about  20  by  18^  feet,  the  second  is  27 
by  30  feet,  while  the  largest  is  about  56  by  69  feet. 
17 


228  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

pattern  of  Gudea's  material,  but  bear  the  Babylonian  name 
Hadadnadinakhe(s)  in  late  Aramean  and  early  Greek  char- 
acters, from  which  the  general  age  of  this  building  was  de- 
termined to  be  about  300-  250  b.  c,  a  result  corroborated 
by  the  fact  that  numerous  coins  with  Greek  legends  of  the 
kings  of  Characene^  were  found  in  its  ruins. 

Both  the  inside  of  the  palace  and  the  open  space  immedi- 
ately before  its  principal  fa9ade  were  paved  with  burned 
bricks  of  the  same  size  and  make-up  as  those  in  the  walls 
of  the  palace.  These  bricks  did  not  rest  directly  upon  the 
large  terrace  of  crude  bricks,  but  upon  a  layer  of  earth  two 
to  three  feet  deep  mixed  with  sculptured  fragments  of  an 
early  period.  In  the  centre  of  the  platform  before  the  pal- 
ace there  stood  upon  a  kind  of  pedestal  an  ancient  trough  or 
manger,  in  limestone,  about  eight  feet  long,  one  foot  and  a 
half  wide,  and  one  foot  deep.  Being  out  of  its  original 
position  it  had  apparently  been  used  by  the  later  architects 
to  provide  water  for  the  guards  stationed  near  the  northeast 
entrance  of  the  palace.  Its  two  small  sides  had  preserved 
traces  of  cuneiform  writing  of  the  style  of  the  time  of  Gudea, 
to  whom  this  unique  monument  doubtless  must  be  ascribed. 
The  two  long  sides,  once  exquisitely  adorned  with  bas-reliefs, 
had  likewise  suffered  considerably  from  exposure.  But 
enough  remained  to  recognize  in  them  a  living  chain  of 
female  figures,  a  "  frieze  of  veritable  Chaldean  Naiads 
through  their  union  symbolizing  the  perpetuity  of  water."  ^ 
A  number  of  women,  in  graceful  attitude,  hold,  in  their  out- 
stretched hands,  magical  vases  which  they  evidently  are  pass- 
ing one  to  another.  A  double  stream  of  water  gushing  forth 
from  each  of  these  inexhaustible  receptacles  represents  the 
two  sacred  rivers,  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates,  which,  on 

^  A  district  situated  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Tigris,  not  very  far  from  its 
junction  with  the  Euphrates. 

'  Thus  in  his  usual  masterly  manner  characterized  by  Heuzey,  Decouvertes, 
p.  217  (comp.  p.  43,  note  I,  of  the  same  work). 


DURING  VJrii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      229 

another  fine  sculptured  fragment  rescued  from  the  rubbish 
below  the  pavement  of  the  same  palace/  are  indicated  with 
even  greater  detail  by  a  plant  growing  out  of  the  vase  and 
by  a  fish  swimming  against  the  current  in  each  river. 

Close  to  the  middle  of  the  southwest  wall  of  the  palace 
just  described,  and  extending  considerably  into  its  principal 
courts,  there  rose  two  massive  structures,  or  terraces  of 
baked  bricks  laid  in  bitumen,  above  the  remains  of  the  Par- 
thian building.  Both  joined  each  other  at  one  corner,  but 
they  were  reached  by  separate  stairs  and  differed  from  each 
other  also  as  to  their  height.  As  they  interfered  greatly 
with  the  general  plan  and  arrangement  of  the  interior  of  the 
palace,  it  was  evident  from  the  beginning  that  they  belonged 
to  an  older  building,  lifting,  so  to  speak,  its  head  out  of  a 
lower  stratum  into  the  post-Babylonian  period,  as  the  last 
witness  of  a  by-gone  age.  The  fact,  however,  that  the  in- 
scribed bricks,  so  far  as  examined,  bore  the  name  of  Gudea 
on  their  upper  '^  sides,  was  in  itself  a  proof  that  the  visible 
portion  of  this  ancient  structure  had  in  part  been  relaid  and 
otherwise  changed  in  accordance  with  its  different  use  in  the 
Seleucidan  times.  The  two  terraces,  affording  a  grand  view 
over  the  surrounding  plain,  must  have  been  important  to 
the  late  inhabitants  from  a  military  standpoint,  while  at  the 
same  time  they  served  as  a  kind  of  elevated  gallery  or  espla- 
nade where  the  residents  of  the  palace  could  enjoy  a  fresh 
breeze  of  air  in  the  cooler  evening  hours  of  a  hot  Babylonian 
summer. 

No  sooner  had  De  Sarzec  commenced  to  examine  the 
ground  around  the  vertical  walls  of  these  peculiar  structures 
than,  to  his  great  astonishment,  he  came  upon  other  remains 
of  the  same  building  imbedded  in  the  crude  brick  terrace. 
Unfortunately,  the  rebellion  breaking  out  among  the  Mun- 
tefik(j)  tribes, in  1 8  8 1 ,  brought  the  explorer's  work  to  a  sudden 

^  Comp.  Decouvertes,  pi.  25,  no.  6. 
2  Comp.  the  end  of  p.  31,  above. 


230  EXrLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

end,  so  that  he  was  then  unable  to  arrive  at  a  definite  conclu- 
sion concerning  its  true  character.  But  in  connection  with 
his  later  campaigns  he  also  resumed  his  excavations  at  the 
lower  strata  of  Mound  A,  discovering  that  the  remains  which 
had  puzzled  him  so  much  before  belonged  to  the  tower  of 
a  fortified  enclosure.  In  digging  along  its  base,  he  established 
that  one  side  of  the  latter  showed  the  same  simple  pattern 
as  the  two  fa9ades  of  the  Parthian  building, —  in  other 
words,  those  peculiar  architectural  ornaments  which  the 
ancient  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  reserved  exclusively  for 
exterior  decoration.  Soon  afterwards  he  excavated  a  large 
gate  with  three  stepped  recesses,  which  on  the  one  hand  was 
flanked  by  the  tower,  while  on  the  other  side  its  wall  was 
lost  in  the  later  building.^ 

All  the  bricks  taken  from  this  fortified  enclosure  were  in 
their  original  position,  and  bore  the  inscription  :  "  To  Nin- 
Girsu,  the  powerful  champion  of  Bel,  Gudea,  patesi  of 
Shir-pur-la,  accomplished  something  worthy,  built  the  tem- 
ple £«/«««-/;;?g-ig-(-|-«)(^^ri^^r(2"  and  restored  it."  This  legend 
and  similar  statements  occurring  on  the  statues  in  dolerite  and 
on  other  votive  objects  rescued  from  the  same  part  of  the 
ruins,  the  fact  that  Mound  A  represents  the  most  extensive 
single  hill  of  Tello,  and  several  other  considerations,  lead 
necessarily  to  the  conclusion  that  the  ancient  structure  lying 
below  the  Seleucidan  palace  and  partly  worked  into  it  can 
only  be  Eninnu,  the  chief  sanctuary  of  the  Babylonian  city, 
sacred  to  Nin-Girsu  or  Nin-Su(n)gir,  the  tutelary  deity  of 
Lagash. 

^  Comp.  Heuzey  in  Comptes  Rendus  de  P  Academic  des  hucriptions,  1894, 
pp.  34-42. 

^  The  name  of  the  temple  appears  either  as  E-Ninnu,  "House  of  God 
Ningirsu"  (Ninnu,  "  50,"  being  the  ideogram  of  the  god),  or  as  E-Imgig- 
(^-gu)bara,  i.  e.  the  temple  called  Imgig{^-gu)bara  (*'  Imgig  is  shining"),  or 
as  E-Ninnu-Imgig(^-gu')barbara  (a  composition  of  these  two  names).  The 
divine  bird  Imgig  was  the  emblem  of  the  God  Ningirsu  and  of  his  city  Shir- 
puv'la  i^Z.A.  XV,  pp.  52  seq.,  xvi,  p.  357),  according  to  Hommel,  originally  a 
raven  { shir-pur (^-gu)     =  aribu.') 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      231 

This  temple  existed  at  Tello  from  the  earhest  times.^ 
But  an  examination  of  the  inscription  on  the  statue  of  Ur- 
Bau,  and  the  results  of  De  Sarzec's  explorations  in  the  lower 
strata,  would  seem  to  indicate  that  this  ruler  abandoned  the  old 
site  of  Eninnu  altogether,  and  rebuilt  the  temple  on  a  larger 
scale  at  the  place  where  its  ruins  are  seen  at  present.  How- 
ever, it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  displacement  of  a 
renowned  sanctuary  involved  in  this  theory  is  something 
unheard  of  in  the  history  of  ancient  Babylonia.  It  is  contrary 
to  the  well-known  spirit  of  conservatism  manifested  by  the 
ancient  inhabitants  of  Babylonia  in  all  matters  connected 
with  their  religion,  and  directly  opposed  to  the  numerous 
statements  contained  in  the  so-called  building  inscriptions 
and  boundary  regulations  of  all  periods.^ 

Unfortunately  very  little  of  the  temple  of  Nin-Su(n)gir 
seems  to  have  been  left.  De  Sarzec  had  previously  discovered 
a  wall  of  Ur-Bau  under  the  east  corner  of  the  palace.  But 
besides  it  and  the  tower  and  gate  of  Gudea  he  brought  no- 
thing to  light  except  layers  of  crude  bricks  from  the  artificial 
terrace.  In  the  light  of  these  negative  results,  how  can  the 
continuity  of  the  sanctuary  at  one  and  the  same  place  be 
defended  ?  On  the  ground  that  in  order  to  secure  a  stronger 
and  larger  foundation  for  his  own  new  sanctuary,  Ur-Bau 
may  have  razed  the  crumbling  terrace  of  the  old  temple 
entirely,  as  many  other  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  monarchs 

^  The  E-T^ingirsu  of  Ur-Nina  is  practically  the  same  name  as  E-Nhuiu, 
both  meaning  "  temple  of  Ninib."  As  far  as  I  can  see,  the  name  E-Ninnii 
occurs  for  the  first  time  in  the  inscriptions  of  Entemena,  great-grandson  of 
Ur-Nina,  and  in  a  text  of  Urukagina. 

^  That  in  the  earliest  days  of  ancient  Babylonia  practically  the  same  spirit 
prevailed  as  in  Semitic  times  with  regard  to  the  inviolable  character  of  sacred 
enclosures,  boundary  lines,  agreements  (especially  when  made  with  gods,  /'.  e., 
their  territory,  income,  gifts)  is  clear  from  certain  instructive  passages  engraved 
upon  "the  historical  cone  of  Entemena,"  which  doubtless  came  from  Tello 
(comp.  Revue  cV Ass'^riologie,  vol.  iv,  pp.  37,  seqq.'),  and  from  the  long 
curse  attached  to  Gudea' s  inscription  on  Statue  B. 


232  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

did  afterwards  in  other  cities.  And  no  less  on  the  ground 
that  according  to  all  evidence  furnished  by  the  excavations/ 
the  present  terrace,  on  which  the  local  rulers  of  the  Seleuci- 
dan  age  erected  their  castle,  is  considerably  smaller  than  the 
platform  of  the  patesis  of  Lagash.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
therefore  that  a  considerable  part  of  the  earliest  temple 
ruins,  which  in  all  probability  included  even  those  of  a  stage- 
tower,"  was  intentionally  demolished  and  removed  by  Ur- 
Bau,  or,  if  not  by  him,  surely  by  the  Parthian  princes  of  the 
third  century,  who  built  their  palace  almost  exclusively  of 
the  bricks  of  Gudea's  temple.  We  have  a  somewhat  similar 
case  at  Nippur,  For  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  char- 
acteristic change  from  a  Babylonian  sanctuary  into  a  Seleu- 
cldo-Parthian  palace  observed  at  Tello  is  precisely  the  same 
as  took  place  in  the  sacred  precinct  of  Bel  at  Nuffar,  so  that 
the  evidence  obtained   in  the  trenches   of  the  latter,  better 

^  And  in  a  recent  letter  to  the  present  writer  expressly  confirmed  by 
Heuzey. 

^  From  the  analogical  case  of  Nippur  (Fourth  Campaign,  below),  where  a 
central  kernel  of  the  huge  ziggurrat  descends  far  down  into  the  pre-Sargonic 
stratum,  and  from  certain  passages  in  the  earliest  inscriptions  from  Tello,  I  feel 
convinced  that  a  stage-tower,  the  most  characteristic  part  of  every  prominent 
Babylonian  temple,  must  also  have  existed  at  Lagash  —  however  modest  in  size 
—  at  the  time  of  the  earliest  kings.  Traces  of  it  mav  still  be  found  somewhere 
in  the  lowest  strata  of  Mound  A.  For  the  pre-Sargonic  ziggurrat  at  Nippur 
comp.  Helm  and  Hilprecht,  Mitteilung  itber  die  chemische  Untersuchung  von 
.altbabylonischen  Kupfer-  unci  Bronze  Gegenstandcn  und  deren  Altersbestim- 
mung,  in  Verhandlungen  der  Berliner  anthropologischen  Gesellschaft,  Febr.  1 6, 
1 901,  p.  159.  As  to  a  stage-tower  probably  mentioned  in  the  Tello  inscrip- 
tions, comp,  Gudea  D,  col.  ii,  1.  i  i :  E-pa  e-ub-imin-na-ni  mu-na-ru,  and 
Jensen  in  Schrader's  Keilinschriftliche  Bibliothek,  vol.  iii,  part  i,  pp.  50, 
seq.  Comp.  also  Ur-Nina's  inscription  published  in  Decouvertes,  pi.  2,  no,  2, 
col.  ii,  1.  7—10,  where  uruna-ni  mu-ru,  "  he  built  his  (Ningirsu's)  observa- 
tory," is  immediately  preceded  by  E-pa  mu-ru,  so  that  in  view  of  the  Gudea 
passage,  we  probably  have  to  recognize  a  close  connection  between  the  Epa 
and  the  uruna,  the  latter  being  situated  upon  the  top  of  the  former.  For 
stage-tower  and  observatory  cannot  be  separated  from  each  other  in  ancient 
Babvlonia. 


DURING  19TU  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      233 

preserved  ruin  ^  goes  far  to  explain  the  detached  walls  un- 
earthed in  the  lower  strata  of  Tello. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Seleucido-Parthian  building 
just  described,  the  few  but  important  remains  of  Eninnu 
and  the  ingeniously  constructed  brick  columns  of  Gudea 
above  (p.  222)  referred  to,  De  Sarzec's  excavations  had  so 
far  been  comparatively  unproductive  of  noteworthy  archi- 
tectural results.  They  were  more  interesting  and  truly 
epoch-making  in  their  bearing  upon  our  knowledge  of  the 
origin  and  development  of  ancient  Babylonian  art.  For  the 
rubbish  which  filled  the  chambers  and  halls  of  the  palace 
not  only  contained  the  ordinary  pottery,  iron  instruments, 
perforated  stone  seals  in  the  forms  of  animals,^  and  other 
objects  characteristic  of  the  last  centuries  preceding  the 
Christian  era,  but  it  also  yielded  numerous  door-sockets  of 
Gudea  and  Ur-Bau  re-used  later  in  part,  inscribed  vases  and 
mace-heads,  a  large  quantity  of  seal  cylinders,^  principally 

^  Comp.  mv  "  Report  from  NufFar  to  the  Committee  of  the  Babyl.  Exped. 
in  Philadelphia,"  April  21,  1900,  from  which  I  quote:  "  The  building  de- 
scribed by  Peters  and  Haynes  as  the  temple  of  Bel  is  only  a  huge  Parthian 
fortress  lying  on  the  top  of  the  ancient  temple  ruin,  and  so  constructed  that 
the  upper  stages  of  the  ziggurrat  served  as  a  kind  of  citadel." 

2  Found  under  the  alabaster  threshold  in  the  inner  gate  of  the  southwest 
side  of  the  palace,  where,  in  accordance  with  a  custom  frequently  observed  in 
Assyrian  buildings,  they  evidently  had  been  placed  as  talismans.  The  fine 
Sommerville  collection  of  talismans  in  the  Archseological  Museum  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  contains  a  large  number  of  similar  Parthian  stone 
seals. 

*  Likewise  serving  as  talismans  against  demons  and  their  obnoxious  influ- 
ences. This  interesting  use  of  ancient  Babylonian  seal-cylinders,  cuneiform 
tablets,  and  other  inscribed  objects  by  the  later  inhabitants  of  the  country  ex- 
plains why  they  occur  so  frequently  in  Parthian  tombs  (comp.  my  remarks  on 
pp.  154,  seq.,  168,  above,  and  De  Sarzec  and  Heuzey,  Decouvertes,  p.  73, 
note  i).  But  it  also  illustrates  how  impossible  it  is  to  use  such  finds  without 
criticism  as  material  for  determining  the  age  of  tombs  in  Babylonian  ruins,  as 
unfortunately  was  done  by  Peters  in  his  "  Nippur,"  vol.  ii,  p.  219.  Peters' 
classification  of  Babylonian   coffins   and   pottery   cannot  be   taken   seriously. 


234    •  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

taken  from  the  mortar  uniting  the  different  layers  of  brick 
in  a  furnace,  and  not  a  few  of  those  priceless  fragments  of 
bas-reliefs,  statues,  and  statuettes  which  will  always  form  the 
basis  for  a  systematic  study  of  earlier  Chaldean  art.  The 
most  valuable  discoveries,  however,  awaited  the  explorer  in 
the  debris  filling  the  large  open  court  and  the  rooms  and 
passages  grouped  around  it,  and  in  the  layer  of  earth 
separating  the  pavement  of  the  Parthian  edifice  from  the 
crude  brick  terrace  below  it.  No  less  than  eight  decapitated 
statues  —  four  sitting  and  four  standing —  lay  on  the  court 
in  two  distinct  groups  scarcely  more  than  ten  yards  apart 
from  each  other.  A  detached  shaved  head,  doubtless  origi- 
nally belonging  to  one  of  them,  was  found  in  their  imme- 
diate neighborhood. 

Among  the  many  valuable  antiquities  which  came  from 
the  adjoining  halls  and  from  the  earth  below  this  whole  sec- 
tion we  mention  one  of  the  largest  bas-reliefs  discovered  in 
Tello,^  representing  a  procession  of  priests  and  a  musician 
playing  a  peculiarly  decorated  harp  of  eleven  chords  dating 
from  the  time  of  Gudea ;  a  little  fragment  of  sculpture  of 
the  same  epoch,  which  rapidly  gained  a  certain  celebrity 
among  modern  artists  for  the  exquisite  modelling  and  fine 
execution  of  a  naked  female  foot  ; "  a  mutilated  and  half- 
calcined  slab  showing  a  humped  bull  carved  with  a  rare  skill 
and  surprising  fidelity  to  nature  ;  ^  a  small  but  well  preserved 
head  in  steatite  reproducing  the  type  of  the  large  shaved  head 
with   a  remarkable   grace  and   delicacy  ; ''    a  new  piece  of 

because  it  ignores  the  establishied  laws  of  archjeology  and  the  principles  of  histor- 
ical research. 

1  Over  four  feet  high,  and,  according  to  Heuzey,  probably  belonging  to  a 
four-sided  altar,  stele,  or  pedestal  {Decouvertes,  pi.  23). 

2  Comp.  Decouvertes,  pi.  25,  no.  6,  identical  with  the  fragment  quoted  on 
p.   229,  above. 

8  Comp.  Decouvertes,  pi.  25,  no.  4. 
*  Comp.  Decouvertes,  ^X.  25,  no.  i. 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      235 

the  "  stele  of  vultures  "  previously  mentioned  ;  ^  and  the 
first  fragment  of  an  inscribed  tablet  of  Ur-Nina,  exhibiting 
the  lion-headed  eagle  with  outspread  wings  victoriously 
clutching  two  lions  in  its  powerful  talons,  —  the  well-known 
coat  of  arms  of  the  city  o^  Shir-pur-la? 

The  last-named  monument  enabled  Heuzev  to  bring  the 
earliest  remains  of  Chaldean  art,  so  scrupulously  gathered  by 
De  Sarzec,  into  closer  relation  with  the  ancient  kings  of 
Tello.  He  ascertained  that,  contrary  to  what  we  know  of 
the  first  princes  of  Assyria,  the  rulers  who  style  themselves 
"  kings  of  Shir-pur-la  "  are  older  ^  than  those  who  bear  the 
title  patesi,  i.  e.^  "  priest-king,"  or  more  exactly  "  prince- 
priest,"  in  their  inscriptions,  —  a  result  which  allowed  him 
at  once  to  establish  an  approximate  chronology  for  the  newly 
discovered  rulers  of  Southern  Babylonia  in  accordance  with 
the  progress  in  style  to  be  traced  in  their  sculptures  and  bas- 
reliefs.  Furthermore,  the  French  archaeologist  determined 
a  number  of  general  facts,"*  on  the  basis  of  which  he  success- 
fully defended  the  two  following  theses,  —  (i)  that  the  stvle 
of  the  monuments  of  Tello  is  not  a  style  of  imitation,  but 
a  real  and  genuine  archaism  ;  (2)  that  quite  a  number  of  the 
monuments  discovered  antedate  the  remote  epoch  of  King 
Naram-Sin  (about  3750  b.  c.^),  and  lead  us  back  to  the  very 

^  Comp.  Decouvertes,  pis.  3  and  4,  B. 

-  Comp.  Decouvertes,  pi.  i,  no.  2.  A  very  similar  fragment  is  in  the 
Imperial  Ottoman  Museum,  at  Constantinople  (no.  420). 

^  This  statement  has  reference  only  to  the  two  principal  groups  of  rulers 
of  Lagash  then  known.  In  all  probability  there  was  still  an  earlier  dynasty  at 
Tello,  the  members  of  which  bear  the  title  patcsi.  Comp.  Thureau-Dangin 
in  Zeitschrift  fur  Jssyrioiogie,  vol.  xv,  p.  403. 

*  Comp.  Heuzey's  subtle  observations  on  Chaldean  art  in  Revue  Archeo- 
logique,  new  series,  vol.  xlii,  1881,  p.  263,  and  in  Decouvertes,  pp.  77-86, 
I  19-127,   186,  seq. 

'  The  date  of  Naram-Sin' s  government  was  obtained  from  a  cyhnder  of 
Nabonidos  excavated  by  Rassam  at  Abu  Habba  about  the  same  time.  Comp. 
p.  273,  below. 


236  HXPLOEATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

beginning  of  Chaldean  art.  These  fundamental  deductions 
and  historical  conclusions,  so  quickly  drawn  by  Heuzey 
after  his  study  of  the  archaeological  details  of  the  monuments, 
found  their  full  corroboration  through  the  deciphering  of 
their  accompanying  inscriptions  by  Oppert  and  Amiaud, 
and  through  the  present  writer's  palteographical  and  his- 
torical researches  in  connection  with  the  Nuffar  antiquities, 
which  afforded  a  welcome  means  of  controlling  and  supple- 
menting the  results  obtained  at  Tello. 

The  magnificent  collection  of  statues  in  diorite,  or  more 
exactly  dolerite,  will  always  remain  the  principal  discovery 
connected  with  De  Sarzec's  name.  With  the  exception  of 
but  one  erected  by  Ur-Bau,  they  bear  the  name  of  Gudea, 
patesi  of  Shir-pur-la  or  Lagash,  as  the  city  at  some  time 
must  have  been  called.  Famous  as  the  choicest  museum 
pieces  so  far  recovered  from  Babylonian  soil,  and  remark- 
able for  their  unity  of  style  and  technique,  and  therefore 
occupying  a  most  prominent  place  in  the  history  of  ancient 
art,  they  appeal  to  us  no  less  through  the  simplicity  and 
correctness  of  their  attitude  and  through  the  reality  and 
power  of  their  expression,  than  through  the  extraordinary 
skill  and  ability  with  which  one  of  the  hardest  stones  in 
existence  has  here  been  handled  by  unknown  Chaldean 
artists.  The  mere  fact  that  such  monuments  could  origi- 
nate in  ancient  Babylonia  speaks  volumes  for  the  unique 
character  and  the  peculiar  vitality  of  this  great  civilization, 
which  started  near  the  Persian  Gulf  thousands  of  years  be- 
fore our  era,  and  fundamentally  influenced  the  religious  ideas 
and  the  intellectual  development  of  the  principal  Semitic  na- 
tions, and  through  them  left  its  impression  even  upon  Europe 
and  upon  our  own  civilization. 

All  the  statues  represent  a  human  ruler  —  generally 
Gudea  —  whose  name  is  found  in  a  kind  of  cartouche  on 
the  right  shoulder  or  in  a  long  inscription  engraved  upon 
a  conspicuous  part  of  the  body  or  garment ;  and  they  all 


Gudea,  Priest-King  of  Lagash,  as  Architect 
Statue  in  dolerite,  about  3JOO  B.   C. 


DURING  19™  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      237 

have  the  hands  clasped  before  the  breast  in  an  attitude  of 
reverence.  As  over  against  the  typical  sobriety  and  conven- 
tional style  of  the  early  Egyptian  sculptures,  the  Chaldean 
artist  endeavors  to  express  real  life  and  to  imitate  nature 
within  certain  limits  set  by  the  peculiar  material,  "  the  rou- 
tine of  the  studios  and  the  rules  of  sacred  etiquette."  The 
swelling  of  the  muscles  of  the  right  arm,  the  delicately  carved 
nails  of  the  fingers,  the  expressive  details  of  the  feet  firmly 
resting  on  the  ground,  the  characteristic  manner  in  which 
the  fringed  shawl  is  thrown  over  the  left  shoulder,  and  the 
first  naive  and  timid  attempt  at  reproducing  its  graceful  folds 
betray  a  remarkable  gift  of  observation  and  no  small  sculp- 
tural talent  on  the  part  of  these  ancient  Sumerians.  Two  of 
the  sitting  statues  show  Gudea  as  an  architect  with  a  large 
tablet  upon  his  lap,  while  a  carefully  divided  rule  and  a  sty- 
lus are  carved  in  relief  near  its  upper  and  right  edges.  The 
surface  of  the  one  tablet  is  empty,^  while  on  the  other  the 
patesi  has  drawn  a  large  fortified  enclosure  provided  with 
gates,  bastions  and  towers. 

The  great  number  and  the  artistic  value  of  the  monuments 
of  Gudea  point  to  an  extraordinary  prosperity  and  a  com- 
paratively peaceful  development  of  the  various  resources  of 
the  city  of  Lagash  at  the  time  of  his  government  (about 
2700  B.  c).  This  natural  inference  is  fully  confirmed  by 
the  vast  remains  of  his  buildings  at  the  ruins  and  by  the 
unique  contents  of  his  many  inscriptions.  The  latter  were 
greeted  by  Assyriologists  as  the  first  genuine  documents 
of  a  period  when  Sumerian  was  still  a  spoken  language, 
however  much  influenced  already  by  the  grammar  and 
lexicography  of  their  Semitic  neighbors  and  conquerors. 
But  aside  from  their  linguistic  and  palaeographical  import- 
ance these  inscriptions,  though  even  at  present  by  no 
means  fully  understood,  revealed  to  us  such  a  surprising 
picture  of  the  greatness  and  extent  of  the  ancient  Sumerian 

^  This  is  the  tablet  seen  in  the  illustration  facing  this  page. 


238  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

civilization  and  of  the  geographical  horizon  of  the  early- 
inhabitants  of  Lagash  that  at  first  it  seemed  almost  impos- 
sible to  regard  it  as  faithful  and  historical.  Gudea  fought 
victorious  battles  against  Elam  and  sent  his  agents  as  far 
as  the  Mediterranean.  He  cut  his  cedars  in  Northern  Syria 
and  Idumea  and  obtained  his  dolerite  in  the  quarries  of 
Eastern  Arabia  (Magan).  His  caravans  brought  copper 
from  the  mines  of  the  Nejd  (Kimash),  and  his  ships  carried 
gold  and  precious  wood  from  the  mountains  of  Medina 
and  the  rocky  shores  of  the  Sinaitic  peninsula  (Melukh).^ 
What  an  outlook  into  the  lively  intercourse  and  the  ex- 
change of  products  between  the  nations  of  Western  Asia 
at  the  threshold  of  the  fourth  and  third  pre-Christian 
millenniums,  but  also  what  an  indication  of  the  powerful 
influence  which  went  forth  from  this  little  known  race  of 
Southern  Babylonia,  irresistibly  advancing  in  all  directions 
and  affecting  Palestine  long  before  Abram  left  his  ancestral 
home  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Euphrates.  And  yet  De 
Sarzec's  excavations  at  Tello  and  the  Philadelphia  expedition 
to  NufFar  were  soon  to  provide  ample  new  material  by  means 
of  which  we  were  enabled  to  follow  that  remarkable  civiliza- 
tion a  thousand  years  and  even  further  back. 

3.  De  Sarzec's  careful  description  of  the  many  ancient  re- 
mains unearthed  by  him,  and  Heuzey's  admirable  exposi- 
tion of  the  age  and  importance  of  the  new  material,  prepared 
the  way  for  an  early  resumption  of  the  excavations  at 
Tello.    But  in  view  of  certain  fundamental  changes  recently 

1  Comp.  Hommel's  article  "  Explorations  in  Arabia,"  in  this  volume.  Iron, 
however,  was  not  among  the  metals  brought  by  Gudea  from  Melukh,  as  was 
asserted  by  Hommel  and  (following  him)  by  myself  (in  I'crhandluugen  der 
Berliner  anthropologischt-?i  Gesellschaft,  session  of  16  Febr.,  1901,  p.  164)- 
So  far  no  iron  has  been  discovered  in  the  earliest  strata  o\  either  Nuffar  or 
Tello.  Indeed,  I  doubt  whether  it  appears  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia  much 
before  1000  b.  c.  The  earliest  large  finds  of  iron  implements  known  to  us 
from  the  exploration  of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  ruins  date  from  the  eighth 
century  b.  c.  and  were  made  in  Sargon's  palace  at  Khorsabad  (comp.  p.  83, 


DURING  I'JTU   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      239 

made  in  the  archasological  laws  of  the  Ottoman  empire  ^  at 
Hamdy  Bey's  recommendation,  the  French  minister  deemed 
it  wise  at  first  to  ascertain  the  future  attitude  of  the  Porte 
with  regard  to  the  ownership  of  other  antiquities  which 
might  be  discovered,  before  he  sanctioned  any  further  ex- 
ploration in  Southern  Babylonia.  After  frequent  and  pro- 
tracted negotiations  a  satisfactory  understanding  was  finally 
reached  between  the  two  interested  powers.  De  Sarzec  had 
meanwhile  been  appointed  consul  at  Baghdad.  In  1888  he 
was  authorized  to  proceed  again  to  the  scene  of  his  former 
labors,  which  henceforth  were  deprived  of  their  private  char- 
acter and  conducted  under  the  auspices  and  at  the  expense 
of  the  French  government. 

Certain  scattered  fragments  of  sculptures  and  a  few  inscrip- 
tions'"  previously  gathered  had  made  it  evident  that  the 
mounds  of  Tello  contained  monuments  considerably  older 
than  the  statues  of  Ur-Bau  and  Gudea,  and  reaching  back 
almost  to  the  very  beginning  of  Babylonian  civilization.  The 
question  arose,  Which  of  the  numerous  elevations  of  the  very 
extensive  site  most  probably  represents  the  principal  settle- 
ment of  this  early  period  and  is  likely  to  repay  methodical 
researches  with  corresponding  important  discoveries?  Re- 
membering the  very  numerous  ancient  constructions  which  ten 
years  before  had  been  brought  to  light  by  his  trial  trenches 
in   Mound   B,  De  Sarzec  now  directed  his  chief  attention 

above)  and  in  Ashurnasirapal's  northwest  palace  at  Nimrud  (comp.  p.  124, 
above).  As  we  know,  however,  that  Sargon  (722—705  b.  c.)  also  restored 
and  for  a  while  occupied  the  latter  palace  (comp.  pp.  106  and  i  i  i,  above) 
the  iron  utensils  found  in  it  doubtless  go  back  to  him  and  not  to  the  time  of 
Ashurnasirapal. 

1   Comp.  pp.  205,  seq.,  above. 

^  Among  them  inscribed  monuments  of  Ur-Nina,  Eannatum,  Entemena, 
and  Enannatum.  Comp.  the  fragments  of  the  bas-reliefs  of  Ur-Nina  and  "  the 
stele  of  vultures  "  previously  referred  to  ;  furthermore  Decouvertes,  pp.  59 
and  68  ;  and  Heuzy,  Les  rois  de  Tello  et  la  per  to  de  archaique  de  P  art  chaldeen, 
in  Revue  Arch'eologique,  Nov.,  1885. 


240  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

to  the  exploration  of  this  section  of  the  ruins,  at  the  same 
time  continuing  his  examination  of  the  lower  strata  of  Mound 
A,  as  indicated  above. 

It  was  a  comparatively  easy  task  for  the  explorer  to 
determine  the  character  of  the  latest  accumulation  which 
covered  the  top  of  this  tumulus.  Upon  a  layer  of  crude 
bricks  he  found  part  of  a  wall  which  constituted  the  last 
remains  of  a  building  of  the  time  of  Gudea  (2700  b.  c), 
whose  name  was  engraved  on  a  door-socket  and  upon  a 
small  copper  figurine  discovered  in  situ.  Another  figurine 
of  the  type  of  the  basket-bearers  had  a  votive  inscription 
of  Dungi,  king  of  Ur,  who  belonged  to  the  same  general 
epoch.  But  his  greatest  finds  from  this  upper  stratum  of 
Mound  B  were  two  exquisite  round  trays  in  veined  onyx 
and  half-transparent  alabaster/  which,  with  the  fragment 
of  a  third,  bore  the  names  of  as  many  different  patesis 
of  Lagash,  Ur-Ninsun,  otherwise  unknown,  Nammakhani, 
the  son-in-law  and  successor  of  Ur-Bau,  and  (Ga)lukani,  a 
vassal  of  Dungi. 

As  soon  as  De  Sarzec  commenced  to  deepen  his  trenches, 
he  came  upon  older  walls  constructed  of  entirely  different 
bricks  laid  in  bitumen.  Thev  were  baked  and  oblong,  flat  on 
their  lower  and  convex  on  their  upper  side,  and  without  ex- 
ception had  a  mark  of  the  right  thumb  in  the  centre  of  the 
latter.  A  few  of  them  bearing  a  legend  of  King  Ur-Nina 
in  large  linear  writing,  it  seemed  safe  to  assume  that  here 
there  were  architectural  remains  which  went  back  to  the  ear- 
liest kings  of  Lagash.  With  great  care  and  expectation  De 
Sarzec  examined  the  whole  building  and  its  environment 
in  the  course  of  the  next  twelve  vears.  Everywhere  at  the 
same  level  characterized  by  a  large  pavement  of  bricks  and 
reached  at  an  average  depth  of  only  thirteen  feet  from  the 
surface,  he  found  inscribed  stone  tablets  and  door-sockets, 

^  Now  in  the  Museum  of  Archaeology  at  Constantinople,  where  with 
other  Babylonian  antiquities  they  were  catalogued  by  the  present  writer. 


18 


Silver  Vase  of  Entemena,  Priest-King  of  Lagash,  decorated  with  the  Emblem  cf  his  God 
About  jgjO  B.  C. 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      241 

weapons,  —  including  a  colossal  spear-head^  dedicated  to 
Ningirsu  by  an  ancient  king  of  Kish,  and  the  elaborately 
carved  mace-head  of  the  even  earlier  King  Mesilim  of  the 
same  city, —  figurines  in  copper,  the  magnificent  silver  vase 
of  Entemena,  lion  heads  and  bas-reliefs,  —  among  them 
the  famous  genealogical  bas-reliefs  of  Ur-Nina  and  three 
new  fragments  of  "  the  stele  of  vultures,"  —  besides  many 
other  precious  antiquities  which  about  4000  b.  c.  had  been 
presented  as  votive  offerings  to  their  gods  by  Ur-Nina, 
Eannatum,  Entemena,  Enannatum,  etc.,  and  several  con- 
temporaneous rulers  of  other  Babylonian  cities  with  whom 
this  powerful  dynasty  of  Lagash  fought  battles  or  otherwise 
came  into  contact. 

But  even  Ur-Nina's  edifice  did  not  represent  the  earliest 
settlement  of  Mound  B.  In  examining  the  ground  below 
his  platform,  De  Sarzec  disclosed  remains  of  a  still  older 
building  imbedded  in  the  crude  bricks  of  the  lofty  terrace 
which  served  as  a  solid  basis  for  the  great  king's  own  con- 
struction. Its  ruined  walls  rose  to  the  height  of  more  than 
nine  feet,  and  were  made  of  bricks  similar  to  those  from  the 
next  higher  stratum,  but  somewhat  smaller  in  size  and  with- 
out their  characteristic  thumb  marks.  This  very  ancient 
building  rested  upon  a  pavement  of  gypsum,  lying  nearly 
sixteen  feet  and  a  half  below  the  platform  of  Ur-Nina  and 
a  little  over  twenty-six  feet  above  the  surrounding  plain, 
occupying  therefore  about  the  centre  of  the  whole  artificial 
mound.  The  unknown  ruler  of  Lagash  who  erected  it  must 
have  lived  towards  the  end  of  the  fifth  pre-Christian  millen- 
nium. A  number  of  votive  statuettes  in  copper  of  a  very 
aichaic  type,  and  fragments  of  sculptured  stones,  including 
the  lower  part  of  a  large  military  stele,  which,  owing  to  its 
weight  and  its  unimportant  details,  remained  on  the  ground,'^ 

'  In  copper,  over  two  feet  and  a  half  long. 

2  In  limestone,  over  six  and  a  half  feet  long,  almost  three  feet  high,  and 
half  a  foot  thick.      Comp.  Decouvertes,  pp.  195,  seq.,  and  pi.  56,  no.  2. 


242  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

repaid  De  Sarzec's  researches  in  the  rubbish  that  filled  the 
interior  of  the  structure  and  covered  the  adjacent  platform. 

A  new  interruption  in  the  French  excavations  at  Tello 
was  caused  in  1889  by  the  explorer's  failing  health  and  his 
temporary  transfer  to  a  higher  and  more  lucrative  position 
in  Batavia.  When  four  years  later  he  returned  once  more 
to  Southern  Babylonia,  soon  afterwards  (1894)  to  be  ap- 
pointed consul-general,  he  extended  his  trenches  in  all 
directions  around  these  enigmatic  architectural  remains,  and 
resumed  his  explorations  at  the  other  points  previously 
attacked.  In  order  to  ascertain  especially,  whether  perhaps 
the  lower  strata  of  mound  B  concealed  monuments  of  even 
greater  antiquity  than  hitherto  disclosed  by  him,  he  ordered 
his  workmen  to  cut  a  trench  through  the  solid  mass  of 
bricks  which  had  formed  the  basis  for  the  different  build- 
ings once  crowning  its  summit.  At  a  depth  of  a  little  over 
twentv-six  feet  he  reached  the  virgin  soil,  where  he  dis- 
continued his  researches.  With  the  exception  of  a  num- 
ber of  empty  receptacles  made  of  bitumen  in  the  shape  of 
large  jars  and  similar  to  others  which  had  been  found  in 
the  walls  of  the  archaic  building,''this  experimental  cutting 
yielded  only  a  few  rude  mace-heads,  hammers,  small  stone 
eggs,  probably  used  by  slingers  in  w^arfare,^  and  the  like, 
and  fragments  of  ordinary  pottery,  all  apparently  contem- 
poraneous with  the  first  edifice  for  which  the  terrace  had 
been  erected. 

On  the  west  slope  of  Mound  B  De  Sarzec  excavated  two 
wells  and  a  water-course  of  the  time  of  Eannatum.  In  a 
manner  peculiar  to  the  earliest  period  of  Babylonian  history, 
the  two  former  were  constructed  of  plano-convex  bricks 
marked  with  the  impressions   of  two   fingers  —  thumb  and 

^  According  to  De  Sarzec  and  Heuzey,  U//e  Ville  Royale  Chaldeenne, 
Paris,  1900,  p.  6:5,  these  eggs  were  commonly  found  at  Tello,  but  their  use 
is  regarded  as  unknown.  They  occur  frequently  also  at  NufFar.  Comp. 
Fourth  Campaign,  Temple  Mound,  Section  6,  below. 


DURING  IQTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      243 

index — and  in  some  instances  bearing  a  long  legend  of  the 
monarch  just  mentioned.  After  a  brief  reference  to  his  reign 
and  principal  military  expeditions,  this  ruler  glorifies  in  hav- 
ing constructed  "  the  great  terrace  of  the  well,"  /.  e.,  in  having 
extended  the  crude  brick  terrace  of  his  predecessor  so  far  as 
to  include  in  it  the  mouths  of  these  two  water  supplies 
which  he  raised  from  the  plain  up  to  the  level  of  Ur-Nina's 
buildings/  From  the  neighboring  debris  came  some  fine 
pieces  of  carved  or  incised  shell,  showing  spirited  scenes  of 
men,  animals  and  plants,  and  doubtless  belonging  to  the 
same  general  epoch.  A  good  many  similar  specimens  of  this 
important  branch  of  ancient  Chaldean  art,  a  few  of  them 
colored,  have  been  recently  obtained  from  various  other 
central  and  south-Babylonian  ruins  by  the  present  writer.^ 

A  rectangular  massive  building,  remains  of  a  gate,  and 
several  artificial  reservoirs  differing  greatly  in  size  and  form 
were  brought  to  light  to  the  southeast  and  northeast  of 
Enannatuma's  wells.  A  few  inscribed  bricks  and  a  number 
of  copper  figurines  carrying  alabaster  tablets  upon  their 
heads  indicated  sufficiently  that  most  of  these  structures 
were  the  work  of  Entemena,  nephew  of  the  last-mentioned 
patesi  o^  Shir-pur-la.  Some  of  them  may  have  been  rebuilt 
in  subsequent  times,  but  preceding  the  governments  of 
Ur-Bau  and  Gudea.  Not  without  good  reason  Heuzey 
proposed  to  identify  the  terrace  to  the  southeast  with  the 
substructure  of  the  Ab{Esh)-gi'^  mentioned  on  some  of  the 
inscribed  bricks  taken  from  the  former,  and  the  sacred  en- 
closure to  the  northeast,  which  in  part  at  least  can  be  still 
defined  by  means  of  the  copper  figurines  found  in  sitUy  with 
the  Ab-bi-ru  '^  of  the  alabaster  tablets. 

^  Comp.  De  Sarzec  and  Heuzey,  IJfie  Ville  Royale  Chald'eenne,  Paris, 
1900,  pp.  69-75,  especially  p.  74. 

2  Comp.  Hilprecht,  ♦'  The  South-Babylonian  Ruins  of  Abu  Hatab  and 
Fara  "  (in  course  of  preparation). 

^  Comp.  De  Sarzec  and  Heuzey,   Une  Ville  Royale  Chaldeenne,  p.  79. 

*  Comp.  De  Sarzec  and  Heuzey,  1.  c,  pp.  87,  seqq. 


244  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Though  the  precise  meaning  of  both  of  these  names  is 
obscure,  Heuzey  is  doubtless  correct  in  trying  to  explain  the 
significance  of  the  two  structures  represented  by  them  from 
the  nature  of  the  principal  building  occupying  Mound  B, 
from  the  character  of  the  numerous  antiquities  excavated  in 
their  neighborhood,  and  from  certain  other  indications  fur- 
nished by  the  inscriptions.  The  large  oval  reservoir  and 
three  smaller  rectangular  ones,  discovered  within  the  enclo- 
sure marked  by  Entemena's  figurines,  have  probably  refer- 
ence to  the  (temporary)  storing  of  dates  ^  and  to  the  prepara- 
tion of  date  wine.  Even  to-day  the  date-growing  Arabs  of 
Babylonia,  who  have  not  been  influenced  by  certain  changes 
recentlv  introduced  in  connection  with  the  increased  export 
of  dates  to  Europe  and  America,  use  similar  elevated  recep- 
tacles, —  the  so-called  medibsa^"  —  which  have  all  the  char- 
acteristic features  of  the  ancient  (oval)  basin  with  its  inclined 
pavement  and  outlet. 

There  are  architectural  remains  which  were  unearthed  in 
other  parts  of  these  ruins  close  to  the  large  brick  terrace 
erected  by  Ur-Nina  and  enlarged  by  his  successors.  But 
being  too  fragmentary  in  themselves  and  valuable  chiefly  as 
providing  further  evidence  with  regard  to  the  real  character 
of  the  whole  complex  of  buildings  concealed  in  Mound  B, 
we  may  well  abstain  from  enumerating  them  one  by  one  and 
describing  their  peculiarities  in  detail. 

What  was  the  original  purpose  of  all  these  separate  walls 
and  crumbling  constructions,  which  at  some  time  apparently 
constituted  an  organic  whole  ?  Certain  pronounced  archi- 
tectural features  still  to  be  recognized  in  the  central  build- 
ings of  the  two  lowest  platforms,  and  a  careful  examination 
of  the  difi^erent  antiquities  taken  from  the  accumulated  rub- 

^   Comp.  the  khauiru  ot  the  Neo-Babylonian  contracts. 

^  For  further  details  as  to  their  construction  and  use,  comp.  Hilprecht, 
*<  The  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,"  series  A, 
vol.  X  (in  press). 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      245 

bish  within  and  around  them,  will  enable  us  to  answer  the 
question  and  to  determine  the  general  character  of  the  vast 
enclosure  with  reasonable  certainty. 

We  notice,  first  of  all,  that  the  most  prominent  structure 
discovered  in  the  stratum  of  the  period  of  Ur-Nina,  about 
thirty-five  feet  long  and  twenty-four  wide,  shows  no  trace 
of  a  door  or  any  other  kind  of  entrance,  though  its  walls, 
when  excavated,  were  still  standing  to  the  height  of  nearly 
four  feet.  It  is  therefore  evident  that  access  to  it  must  have 
been  had  from  above  by  means  of  a  staircase  or  ladder  now 
destroyed,  and  that  for  this  reason  it  could  never  have 
been  used  as  a  regular  dwelling-place  for  men  or  beasts.     A 


French  Excavations  at  Tello  under  De  Sarzec 
Southeast  facade  of  the  storehouse  of  King   Ur-Nina,  about  4000  B.  C. 

similar  result  is  reached  by  examining  the  more  archaic  but 
somewhat  smaller  building  below,  which  presents  even 
greater  puzzles  from  an  architectural  standpoint. 

The  inner  disposition  of  the  upper  edifice  is  no  less 
remarkable  than  its  external  appearance.  It  consists  of 
two  rooms  of  different  size,  which,  however,  do  not  extend 


246  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

directly  to  the  outer  walls,  but  are  disconnected  by  a  passage- 
way or  corridor  over  two  feet  and  a  half  wide,  running  parallel 
with  the  latter  and  also  separating  the  two  rooms  from  each 
other.  These  inner  chambers  likewise  have  no  opening. 
With  good  reason,  therefore,  Heuzey  regards  this  curious 
building  as  a  regular  store  or  provision  house  similarly 
constructed  to  those  known  in  ancient  Egypt.  This  view 
is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the  inscriptions  of  Ur- 
Nina,  Enannatum,  Urukagina,  and  especially  those  of 
Entemena  repeatedly  refer  ^  to  such  a  magazine  or  depot 
of  the  god  Nin-Su(n)gir.  The  ancient  kings  3.nd  pafesis  of 
Lagash  used  to  fill  it  with  grain,  dates,  sesame  oil,  and  other 
produce  of  the  country  required  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
temple  servants,  or  needed  as  supplies  for  their  armies, 
which  fought  frequent  battles  in  the  name  of  their  tutelary 
deity.  The  double  walls,  which  form  a  characteristic  feature 
also  of  a  number  of  chambers  in  the  outer  wall  of  the  huge 
Parthian  fortress  at  Nippur,  were  useful  in  more  than  one 
regard.  They  excluded  the  extreme  heat  of  the  summer 
and  the  humidity  of  the  winter,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
they  insured  the  safety  of  the  stored  provisions  against  dam- 
age from  crevices,  thieves,  and  troublesome  insects.  A  coat 
of  bitumen  covering  the  walls  and  floors  of  the  rooms  and 
corridor  answered  the  same  purpose. 

At  a  distance  of  thirteen  feet  from  the  principal  building 
De  Sarzec  discovered  eight  bases  made  of  baked  brick,  two 
on  each  side,  which  originally  supported  as  many  square 
pillars,  clearly  indicated  by  the  remains  of  charred  cedar- 
wood  found  near  th^i.  It  is  therefore  apparent  that  a  large 
gallery,  a  kind  of  portico  or  peristyle,  as  we  frequently  see  it 
attached  to  the  modern  houses  of  Kurdish  and  Armenian 
peasants  in  Asia  Minor,  surrounded  the  ancient  Babylonian 
edifice  on  all  four  sides,  furnishing  additional  room  for  the 
temporary  storage  of  goods,  agricultural  implements,  and 

^   Comp.  Thureau-Dangin  in  Revue  d''  Assyriologie,  vol.  iii,  pp.  1 19,  seqq. 


DURING  I'JTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      247 

large  objects  which  could  not  be  deposited  within.  On  this 
theory  it  is  easy  to  explain  the  existence  of  so  many  artificial 
reservoirs,  water-courses,  and  wells  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood of  this  interesting  structure.  As  indicated  above, 
they  served  various  practical  purposes  in  connection  with 
this  large  rural  establishment,  such  as  cleansing  and  wash- 
ing, the  storing  of  dates,  the  preparation  of  date  wine,  and 
the  pressing  of  oil. 

Like  the  storerooms  of  the  temple  at  Sippara  so  fre- 
quently mentioned  in  the  later  cuneiform  inscriptions,  this 
sacred  magazine  of  the  earliest  rulers  of  Lagash  was  not 
exclusively  a  granary  and  oil-cellar.  According  to  time  and 
circumstances,  it  was  turned  into  an  armory  or  into  a  safe 
for  specially  valuable  temple  property,  vessels  and  votive 
offerings  of  every  description,  as  a  small  lot  of  copper  dag- 
gers, fragments  of  reliefs,  and  two  inscribed  door-sockets 
found  on  the  floor  of  the  rooms  sufficiently  demonstrate. 
Many  other  objects  of  art  gathered  from  the  debris  around 
this  building  may  therefore  have  formed  part  of  the  trea- 
sures which,  previous  to  the  final  destruction  of  the  city, 
were  kept  within  its  walls.  Modest  and  simple  as  this 
whole  temple  annex  appears  to  us  from  our  present  stand- 
point, it  was  in  every  way  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  an- 
cient population  of  Shir-pur-Ia,  on  its  lofty  terrace  equally 
protected  against  the  annual  inundations  of  the  rivers  and 
the  sudden  invasion  of  hostile  armies. 

Among  the  portable  antiquities  which  rewarded  De  Sar- 
zec's   labors    during    the  three   campaigns    conducted    from 

1893  to  1895,  about  30,000  baked  cuneiform  tablets  and 
fragments  constitute  his  most  characteristic  discovery.      In 

1894  and  1895  they  were  found  in  a  small  elevation  a  little 
over  650  feet  distant  from  the  large  hill  which  contained  the 
buildings  of  the  ancient  princes  of  Lagash  just  described. 
The  successful  explorer  informs  us  ^  that  he  came  upon  two 

1  Through  Heuzey,  in  Revue  d'' Assyiologie,  vol.  iii,  pp.  65-68. 


248  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

distinct  groups  of  rectangular  galleries  constructed  of  crude 
bricks,  upon  which  these  first  large  collections  of  clay  tab- 
lets from  Tello  were  arranged  in  five  or  six  layers,  one 
above  another.  Unfortunately,  soon  after  their  discovery, 
these  interesting  depots,  which  must  be  regarded  as  regular 
business  archives  of  the  temple,  similar  to  others  unearthed 
at  Abu  Habba  and  Nuffar,  were  plundered  by  the  natives. 
Nearly  all  the  leading  museums  of  Europe  and  America 
have  profited  therefrom.  But  nevertheless  it  will  always 
remain  a  source  of  deep  regret  that  the  French  government 
does  not  appear  to  have  succeeded  in  establishing  regular 
guards  at  Tello. ^  Even  when  De  Sarzec  was  in  the  field, 
the  ruins  were  not  sufficiently  protected  at  night,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  frequent  and  long  intervals  in  his  work 
when  no  one  was  left  on  guard  and  those  precious  mounds 
remained  at  the  mercy  of  unscrupulous  merchants  and  of 
the  neighboring  Arabs,  who  soon  began  to  realize  the  finan- 
cial value  of  these  almost  inexhaustible  mines.^  A  large 
number  of  the  stolen  tablets  are  still  in  the  hands  of  the 
antiquity  dealers.  At  first  greedily  bought  by  the  latter  in 
the  sure  expectation  of  an  extraordinarv  gain,  this  archaeo- 
logical contraband  began  recently  to  disappoint  them,  the 
comparatively  uninteresting  and  monotonous  contents  of 
the  average  clay  tablet  from  Tello  offering  too  little  attrac- 
tion to  most  of  the  Assvriological  students. 

As  a  rule  they  refer  to  the  administration  of  temple  pro- 

^  The  ruins  of  NufFar,  the  neighborhood  of  which  is  as  unsafe  as  that  ot 
Tello,  and  the  property  of  the  expedition  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
(house  and  gardens,  and  stores,  furniture  and  utensils  locked  up  in  the  former) 
were  ahvavs  entrusted  to  native  guards  during  our  absence  from  the  field,  the 
•Afej  shaikhs  agreeing  to  guarantee  their  inviolability  for  a  comparatively  small 
remuneration.  Thev  have  always  kept  their  promise  faithfullv,  notwithstanding 
the  wars  which  they  frequently  waged  against  the  Shammar  or  against  each 
other  in  the  meanwhile. 

^  Comp.    Heuzey,    Catalogue  de  la   Sculpture    Chaldeetuie  au   Musk  du 
Louvre,  Paris,  190Z,  Introduction. 


DURING   IDTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      249 

perty,  to  agriculture  and  stock-raising,  to  trade,  commerce, 
and  industry.  There  are  lists  of  offerings,  furniture,  slaves, 
and  other  inventories,  bills  of  entry,  expense  lists,  receipts, 
accounts,  contracts,  and  letters  ;  there  are  even  land  registers, 
plans  of  houses,  of  fortifications,  rivers,  and  canals.  Espe- 
cially numerous  are  the  lists  of  animals  (temple  herds,  and 
the  like)  and  statements  of  the  produce  of  the  fields,  testify- 
ing to  the  eminently  agricultural  and  pastoral  character  of 
the  ancient  principality  of  Lagash.  Among  the  more  in- 
teresting specimens  we  mention  the  fragments  of  a  corre- 
spondence between  Lugal-ushumgal,  paresi  of  S/iir-pur-Ia, 
and  a  contemporaneous  king  of  Agade  (Sargon  or  Naram- 
Sin),  his  suzerain.  Or  we  refer  to  a  number  of  inscribed 
seal-impressions  in  clay,  as  labels  attached  to  merchandise 
and  addressed  to  various  persons  and  cities.^  For  w^e  learn 
from  a  study  of  these  long-buried  archives  that  northern 
Babylonia  largely  exported  grain  and  manufactured  goods 
to  the  south,  while  the  latter  dealt  principally  in  cattle, 
fowl,  wool,  cheese,  butter,  and  eggs — precisely  the  same 
characteristic  products  which  the  two  halves  of  Babylonia 
exchange  with  each  other  to-day. 

With  regard  to  their  age,  these  tablets  cover  a  consider- 
able period.  Some  of  them  antedate  the  dynasty  of  Ur- 
Nina  (4000  b.  c.)  ;  others  bear  the  name  of  Urukagina, 
"  king  of  Shir-pur-lay'  whose  time  has  not  been  fixed  defi- 
nitely ;  -  again  others  belong  to  the  age  of  Sargon  and 
Naram-Sin  (3800  b.  c.)  and  are  of  inestimable  value  for 
their  dates,  which  contain  important  historical   references  ;  ^ 

1  Comp.  Heuzev  in  Comptes  Retidus  des  Seances  de  P  Academie  des  I/iscrip- 
tions  et  BeUes-Lettres,  1896  (4th  series,  vol.  xxiv),  session  of  April  17, 
and  in  Revue  d''  Ass-^riologie,  vol.  iv,  pp.   1-12. 

2  According  to  Thureau-Dangin,  he  lived  after  Entemena.  Comp.  Zeit- 
schrift  fur  Assy iologie,  vol.  xv,  p.  404,  note  i. 

3  Babvlon,  written  ka-dingir-ra-ki,  appears  on  one  of  these  tablets  —  ac- 
cording to  our  present  knowledge  the  first  clear  reference  to  the  famous  city 
known  in  history. 


250  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

a  few  are  the  documents  from  the  reign  of  Gudea  (about  2700 
B.  c);  bv  far  the  largest  mass  of  the  tablets  recovered  be- 
longs to  the  powerful  members  of  the  later  dynasty  of  Ur, 
about  2550  B.  c.  ^ 

Numerous  other  inscribed  antiquities  of  a  more  monu- 
mental character,  such  as  statuettes  with  intact  heads,  trun- 
cated cones,  stone  cylinders,  and,  above  all,  the  large  pebbles 
of  Eannatum,  grandson  of  Ur-Nina,  with  their  welcome 
accounts  of  the  principal  historical  events  occurring  during 
his  government,  were  taken  from  the  clay  shelves  of  the 
same  .subterranean  galleries.  Unique  art  treasures  were 
found  at  different  parts  of  the  ruins  as  previously  indicated, 
but  they  were  especially  numerous  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  storehouses  and  temple  archives.  Among  those  from 
Tello  which  exhibit  the  most  primitive  style  of  art  so  far 
known,  the  fragments  of  a  circular  bas-relief  representing  the 
solemn  meeting  of  two  great  chiefs  followed  by  their  retinues 
of  warriors  hold  a  very  prominent  place.  It  is  contempo- 
raneous with  the  earliest  building  discovered  in  mound  B, 
while  three  excellent  specimens  of  Old  Babylonian  metal- 
lurgy, two  bulls'  heads  in  copper^  and  a  peculiarly  formed 
vase  in  the  same  metal,  belong  to  the  more  advanced  period 
of  Ur-Nina  and  his  successors. 

For  many  years  to  come  the  excavations  of  De  Sarzec  in 
and  around  mound  B  have  furnished  rich  material  for  the 
student  of  ancient  languages,  history,  and  religion.    Though 

^  Comp.  especially  Thureau-Dangin  in  Comptes  Reridus,  1896,  pp.  355- 
361,  and  in  Revue  d''  Assyriologie,  vol.  iii,  pp.  i  18-146  ;  vol.  iv,  pp.  13— 
27  (also  Oppert,  ibidem,  pp.  28-33),  69-84  (accompanied  by  32  plates 
of  representative  texts).  The  latest  inscribed  cuneiform  document  so  far  ob- 
tained from  Tello  is  an  inscribed  cone  of  Rim-Sin  of  Larsam,  according  to  a 
statement  of  Heuzey  in  Comptes  Rendus,  1894,  p.  42. 

2  Two  fine  heads  of  Markhur  goats  in  the  same  metal  and  of  the  same  period 
were  obtained  by  the  present  writer  from  the  pre-Sargonic  mounds  of  Fara. 
Comp.  Helm  and  Hilprecht  in  Verhandlungen  der  Berliner  anthropologischen 
Gesellschaft,  February  16,   1901,  pp.   162,  seqq. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      251 

none  of  the  shrines  and  temples  of  the  different  local  gods 
worshipped  here  has  as  yet  been  identified  with  certainty, 
the  crumbling  remains  of  so  many  buildings  unearthed,  the 
exceptionally  large  number  of  fine  objects  of  art,  and  the 
mass  of  clay  tablets  and  monumental  inscriptions  already 
recovered,  enable  us  to  form  a  tolerably  fair  idea  of  the 
general  character  and  standard  of  civilization  reached  by  the 
early  inhabitants  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  valleys  at  the 
threshold  of  the  fifth  and  fourth  millenniums  before  our  era. 
This  civilization  is  of  no  low  degree,  and  is  far  from  taking 
us  back  to  the  first  beginnings  of  human  order  and  society. 
Of  course  art  and  architecture,  which  developed  in  close 
connection  with  the  religious  cults  and  conceptions  of  the 
people,  and  were  strongly  influenced  in  their  growth  by  the 
peculiarities  of  climate  and  the  natural  conditions  of  the  soil, 
are  simple,  and  in  accordance  with  the  normal  development 
of  primitive  humanity.  The  alluvial  ground  around  La- 
gash  furnished  the  necessary  material  for  making  and  bak- 
ing bricks  for  the  houses  of  the  gods.  During  the  first 
period  of  Babylonian  history  rudely  formed  with  the  hand, 
small  in  size,  flat  on  the  lower  and  slightly  rounded  on  the 
upper  side,  which  generally  also  bears  one  or  more  thumb 
marks,  these  bricks  looked  more  like  rubble  or  quarry 
stones,  in  imitation  of  which  they  were  made,  than  the  arti- 
ficial products  of  man.  Graduallv  they  became  larger  in 
size,  and  under  Ur-Nina  thev  frequently  have  even  a  short 
inscription  in  coarse  linear  writing  on  the  upper  surface. 
But  still  they  continued  to  retain  their  oblong  plano-con- 
vex form  down  to  the  reign  of  Entemena,  the  great-grand- 
son of  the  former,  who  was  the  first  ruler  at  Lagash  to  em- 
ploy a  rectangular  mould  in  the  manufacture  of  his  building 
material.  As  we  learned  from  the  results  of  the  Phila- 
delphia expedition  to  Nuffar,  later  confirmed  by  De  Sarzec's 
own  discoveries  at  Tello,  the  principle  of  the  arch  was 
well  known  in  the  earliest  times  and  occasionally  applied  in 


252  EXPLORATIONS  IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

connection  with  draining.  There  is  much  in  favor  of 
Heuzey's  view  that  the  origin  of  the  arch  may  possibly 
be  traced  to  the  peculiar  form  of  the  native  reed-huts 
called  sari/as  by  the  Arabs  of  modern  Babylonia  (comp. 
the  illustration  on  p.  i6o).  They  are  the  regular  dwelling 
places  of  the  poor  Ma'dan  tribes  which  occupy  the  marshy 
districts  of  the  interior  to-day,  and  they  doubtless  represent 
the  earliest  kind  of  habitation  in  the  "  country  of  canals  and 
reeds  "  at  the  dawn  of  civilization.  The  common  mortar 
found  in  the  buildings  of  the  lowest  strata  is  bitumen  (comp. 
Gen.  II  :  3),  which  was  easily  obtained  from  the  naphtha 
springs  of  the  neighboring  regions,  while  at  least  three  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  cement  were  employed  in  later  centuries 
(comp.  p.  32,  above). 

Vessels  of  different  shapes  and  sizes  were  made  of  terra- 
cotta and  stone,  sometimes  even  of  shell  handsomely  deco- 
rated. It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  in  material,  form,  and 
technique  the  earliest  Babylonian  vases  often  strikingly  re- 
semble those  found  in  the  tombs  of  the  first  dynasties  of 
Egypt.  A  kind  of  veined  limestone  or  onyx  geologically 
known  as  calcite  appears  as  a  specially  favorite  material  in 
both  countries.  The  art  of  melting,  hardening,  casting,  and 
chasing  metals,  especially  copper  and  silver,  was  well  estab- 
lished. The  chemical  analysis  of  early  metal  objects  by  the 
late  Dr.  Helm^  has  recently  shown  that  the  ancient  Baby- 
Ionian  brass  founders  who  lived  about  4000  b.  c.  used  not 
only  tin  but  also  antimony,  in  order  to  harden  copper  and 
at  the  same  time  to  render  it  more  fusible.  Statues  and 
bas-reliefs  are  less  graceful  and  accurate  in  their  design 
and  execution  than  realistic,  sober  and  powerful  through 
their  very  simplicity.  In  order  to  give  more  life  and  ex- 
pression to  animals  and  men  carved  in  stone  or  cast  in 
metal,   the  eyes  of  such  statues  are  frequently   formed  by 

1   Comp.  Helm  and  Hilprecht  in   Verhandlunge7i  der  Berliner  anthropolo- 
gischen  Geselhchaft,    Feb.   16,  1 901,  pp.   ii^j  seqq. 


DURING   lOrii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      253 

Incrustation,  the  white  of  the  apple  of  the  eye  being  repre- 
sented by  shell  or  mother  of  pearl  and  the  pupil  by  bitu- 
men, lapis  lazuli,  or  a  reddish-brown  stone.  Red  color  is 
also  sometimes  used  to  paint  groups  of  figures,  which  with 
an  often  surprising  grace  and  fidelity  to  nature  are  incised 
in  thin  plates  of  shell  or  mother  of  pearl,  in  order  to  set 
them  off  better  from  the  background,^  somewhat  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  Phenician  artist  of  the  sixth  century  treated 
the  two  inscriptions  of  Bostan  esh-Shaikh  (above  Sidon) 
recently  excavated  by  Makridi  Bey  for  the  Imperial  Otto- 
man Museum.^ 

We  do  not  know  when  writing  (which,  contrary  to  De- 
litzsch's  untenable  theory,^  began  as  a  picture  writing)  was 
first  introduced  into  Babylonia.  About  4000  b.  c.  we  find 
it  in  regular  use  everywhere  in  the  country.  Moreover, 
the  single  linear  characters  are  already  so  far  developed  that 
in  many  cases  the  original  picture  can  no  longer  be  recog- 
nized. Only  a  few  short  inscriptions  of  the  earliest  histor- 
ical period,  when  writing  was  still  purely  pictorial,  are  at 
present  known  to  us.  The  one  is  in  the  Archaeological 
Museum  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  another  in 
New  York,  a  third  in  Paris.  Owing  to  the  scarcity  of  this 
class  of  inscribed  stones,  their  precise  date  cannot  yet  be 
ascertained.  They  probably  belong  to  the  beginning  of  the 
fifth  millennium. 

These  first  few  conclusions  drawn  from  the  architec- 
tural remains,  the  sculptures,  and  inscriptions  of  the  period 
of  Ur-Nina,  incomplete  as  the    picture    obtained   thereby 

^  A  large  number  of  such  colored  plates  of  mother  of  pearl  obtained  from 
Fara  and  other  South-Babylonian  ruins  is  in  the  possession  of  the  present 
writer. 

^  Comp.  Hilprecht  in  Deutsche  Litteratur%eitung,  Nov.  30,  1 901,  pp. 
3030,  seq.;  and  in  "Sunday  School  Times,"  Dec.  21,  1901,  p.  857. 

^  Comp.  Delitzsch,  Die  Entstehung  des  altesten  Schriftsysiems,  Leipzig, 
1897. 


254  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

naturally  is,  will  be  sufficient  for  our  present  purpose  to 
show  that  the  civilization  represented  by  his  dynasty  must 
be  regarded  as  a  very  advanced  stage  in  the  gradual  develop- 
ment of  man,  and  that  thousands  of  years  of  serious  striv- 
ing and  patient  work  had  to  elapse  before  this  standard  was 
reached.  The  political  conditions  in  the  country  were  by 
no  means  always  very  favorable  to  the  peaceful  occupations 
of  its  inhabitants,  to  the  tilling  of  the  ground,  to  the  expan- 
sion of  trade,  to  the  advancement  of  art  and  literature.  At 
the  time  of  Ur-Nina,  Babylonia  was  divided  into  a  large 
number  of  petty  states,  among  which  now  this  one,  now  that 
one  exercised  a  passing  hegemony  over  the  others.  The 
three  Biblical  cities  Erech,  Ur,  Ellasar  (/.  e.,  Larsam),  Nip- 
pur (probably  identical  with  Calneh,  Gen.  lo  :  lo),  Kish, 
Lagash,  and  a  place  written  Gish-Khu^^  the  exact  pronuncia- 
tion of  which  is  not  yet  known,  are  the  most  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  of  this  remote  antiquity. 
Every  one  of  these  fortified  cities  had  its  own  sanctuary, 
which  stood  under  the  control  of  d.  patesi  or  "  prince-priest." 
The  most  renowned  religious  centre  of  the  whole  country 
was  Nippur,  with  the  temple  of  Enlil  or  Bel,  "  the  father  of 
the  gods,"  while  for  many  years  the  greatest  political  power 
was  exercised  by  the  kings  of  Kish,  a  city  "  wicked  of 
heart,"  until  Ur-Nina  and  his  successors  established  a  tem- 
porary supremacy  of  Lagash  over  the  whole  South. 

The  last-named  place  consisted  of  several  quarters  or 
suburbs  grouped  around  the  temples  of  favorite  gods  and 
goddesses.  Sungir,  generallv  transliterated  as  Girsu,  and  pos- 
sibly the  prototype  of  the  Biblical  Shinar  (-)i7  3tc  Gen.  lo: 
lo  ;   11:2)"  and  of  the  Babylonian  Shumer,  which  is  only 

dialectically  different   from  the   former,  was  one  of  them, 
» 

^  According  to  Scheil  probably  represented  by  the  ruins  ot  Jokha. 

2  Comp.  Hilprecht,  "  The  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,"  series  A,  vol.  i,  part  2  (1896),  pp.  57,  seq.  ;  and  Radau, 
"Early  Babylonian  History,"  New  York,  1900,  pp.  216,  seqq. 


DURING  lOTU  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      255 

indeed  the  most  important  of  all  the  quarters  of  the  city. 
It  furnished  the  new  dynasty  from  its  nobility  and  took 
the  leading  position  in  the  fierce  struggle  against  the  power- 
ful neighbors  and  oppressors.  Nin-Sungir,  "  the  Lord  of 
Sungir,"  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  the  principal  god,  and 
his  emblem  —  the  lion-headed  eagle  with  its  outspread 
wings  victoriously  clutching  two  lions  in  its  powerful  talons  ^ 
—  became  the  coat  of  arms  of  the  united  city"  and  charac- 
terizes best  the  spirit  of  independence  and  bold  self-reliance 
which  was  fostered  in  his  sanctuary. 

According  to  all  indications  the  dynasty  of  Ur-Nina  was 
one  of  the  mightiest  known  in  the  early  history  of  Baby- 
lonia. The  founder  himself  seems  to  have  devoted  his 
best  strength  and  time  to  the  works  of  peace.  The  numer- 
ous temples  and  canals  received  his  attention,  statues  were 
carved  in  honor  of  the  gods,  and  new  storehouses  con- 
structed to  receive  "  the  abundance  of  the  country."  Car- 
avans were  sent  out  to  obtain  the  necessary  timber  from 
foreign  countries,  and  the  walls  of  the  city  were  repaired 
or  enlarged  in  anticipation  of  future  complications  and 
troubles.  It  was,  however,  reserved  to  Eannatum,  the  most 
illustrious  representative  of  the  whole  dynasty,  to  fight  those 
battles  for  which  his  grandfather  had  already  taken  the 
necessarv  precautions.  Like  his  ancestors  he  continued  to 
develop  the  natural  resources  of  the  country  by  digging  new 
canals  and  wisely  administering  the  inner  affairs  of  his  city. 
But,  above  all,  he  was  great  as  a  warrior,  and  extended  the 
sphere  of  his  influence  far  beyond  the  banks  of  the  Shatt 
el-Hai  and  the  two  great  rivers,  by  defeating  the  army  of 
Elam,  subduing  Gish-khu,  carrying  his  weapons  victori- 
ouslv  against  Erech  and  Ur,  destroying  the  city  of  Az  on 
the  Persian  Gulf,  and  crushing  even  the  power  of  the  kings 

^  Comp.  the  illustration  (<' Silver  Vase  of  Entemena")  facing  p.  241, 
above,  and  what  has  been  said  on  p.   235. 

*  Comp.  Heuzey,  Les  armoiries  Chaldeennes  de  Sirpourla,  Paris,  1894. 
19 


256  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  Kish,  the  old  suzerains  and  hereditary  enemies  of  the 
princes  of  Lagash. 

More  than  once  in  my  preceding  sketch  of  De  Sarzec's 
labors  and  results  I  have  referred  to  his  discovery  of  new 
fragments  of  the  so-called  "  stele  of  vultures."  This  famous 
monument  of  the  past,  one  of  the  most  interesting  art 
treasures  unearthed  in  Tello,  received  its  name  from  a  flock 
of  vultures  which  carry  away  the  hands,  arms,  and  decap- 
itated heads  of  the  enemies  vanquished  and  killed  by  Ean- 
natum  and  his  soldiers.  It  was  originally  rounded  at  the  top, 
about  five  feet  wide  and  correspondingly  high,  and  covered 
with  scenes  and  inscriptions  on  both  its  faces.  The  represen- 
tations on  the  front  celebrate  King  Eannatum  as  a  great  and 
successful  warrior,  while  those  on  the  reverse,  so  far  as  pre- 
served, are  of  a  mythological  character,  showing  traces  of 
several  gods  and  goddesses  in  whose  names  the  battles  w-ere 
fought,  and  who  seem  to  be  represented  here  as  assisting 
their  pious  servant  in  the  execution  of  his  great  and  bloody 
task.  The  stele  of  vultures,  which  indicates  a  very  decided 
progress  in  its  stvie  of  art  and  writing  as  over  against  the 
more  primitive  monuments  of  Ur-Nina,  was  erected  by 
Eannatum  to  commemorate  his  victory  over  the  army  of 
Gish-khu,  and  his  subsequent  treaty  concluded  with  Ena- 
kalli,  patesi  of  the  conquered  city,  whom  he  made  swTar 
never  again  to  invade  the  sacred  territory  of  Nin-Sungir  nor 
to  trespass  the  boundarv  established  anew  between  the  two 
principalities. 

During  the  earlv  months  of  1898  and  1900  De  Sarzec 
conducted  his  last  two  campaigns  at  Tello.  Little  as  yet 
has  been  published  with  regard  to  their  results.  Heuzey 
announced  ^  that  among  the  precious  monuments  obtained 
through  the  excavations  of  the  tenth  expedition  (1898) 
there  are  the  first  inscribed  bricks  of  Ennatuma  I.,  brother 
and  successor  of  Eannatuma,  and  tw^o  carved  oblong  plates, 
^  In  Comptes  Rendui,  1898,  pp.  344-349. 


DURING   19TII  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND   BABYLONIA      257 

or  slabs,  of  Naram-Sin,  in  slate  and  diorite,  apparently 
intended  as  bases  for  small  statues  or  some  other  kind  of 
votive  objects.  Both  slabs  are  provided  with  square  holes 
in  their  centres  and  engraved  with  inscriptions  of  consider- 
able interest.  We  learn  from  the  one  legend  that  the  con- 
quests of  the  last-mentioned  powerful  king,  whose  empire 
extended  from  the  mountains  of  Elam  to  the  boundary 
of  Egypt,  included  the  country  of  Armanu.^  The  other 
makes  us  acquainted  with  a  son  and  with  a  granddaughter 
of  Naram-Sin,  who  served  as  a  priestess  of  Sin,  so  that 
practically  we  now  know  four  generations  of  the  ancient 
kings  of  Agade. 

According  to  a  personal  communication  from  De  Sarzec, 
his  eleventh  campaign,  which  lasted  only  twelve  weeks, 
yielded  no  less  than  4000  baked  cuneiform  tablets  and  frag- 
ments of  the  same  general  character  as  those  described 
above,  two  exquisite  new  heads  of  statues  in  dolerite,  and 
several  other  monuments  of  the  period  of  Ur-Nina  and  his 
successors,  the  first  description  of  which  we  must  leave  to 
the  pen  of  Heuzey,  the  eloquent  and  learned  interpreter  of 
his  friend's  epoch-making  discoveries  in  Southern  Baby- 
lonia. The  tablets  have  been  studied  very  recently  by 
Thureau-Dangin."  According  to  his  information  they  con- 
tain several  new  governors  {patesis)  o(  Shir-pur-la  from  that 
obscure  period  which  lies  between  the  reigns  of  Naram-Sin 
(about  3750  B.  c.)  and  Ur-Gur  (at  present  read  Ur-Engur 
by  the  French  scholar^),  the  probable  founder  of  the  later 
dynasty  of  Ur  (about  2700  b.  c).  They  also  give  us  an 
insight  into  the  administrative  machinery  of  the  powerful 
kingdom  of  Ur,  and  are  of  especial  importance  for  the  long 
government  of  Dungi,  son  and  successor  of  Ur-Gur,  who 

■^  Which  can  scarcely  be  separated  from  Ar-man  mentioned  v  ^.  12,  No.  6, 
47.      Comp.  Delitzsch,  Wo  lag  das  Paradies  ?  Leipzig,   1881,  p.  205. 

-  Comp.   Comptes  Rendus,   1902,  session  of  Jan.   10,  pp.  77-94. 

^  L.  c.  p.  82,  note  2. 


258  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

occupied  the  throne  of  his  father  for  about  half  a  century. 
They  instruct  us  concerning  many  valuable  chronological, 
historical,  and  geographical  details,  among  other  things 
furnishing  almost  definitive  new  proof  for  the  theory  that 
Dungi,  "  king  of  Ur,  king  of  the  four  quarters  of  the 
world,"  and  Dungi,  "  king  of  Ur,  king  of  Shumer  and 
Akkad,"  are  one  and  the  same  person. 

Towards  the  middle  of  February,  1900,  the  French  ex- 
plorer descended  the  Tigris  for  the  last  time,  in  order  to 
reach  Kud(t)  el-'Amara  and  the  scene  of  his  activity  on  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  Shatt  el-Hai.  At  the  same  time  the 
present  writer  ascended  the  river,  being  on  his  way  to  Bagh- 
dad and  to  the  swamps  of  the  'Afej.  A  heavy  thunder- 
storm was  raging  over  the  barren  plains  of  'Iraq,  and 
the  muddy  waters  of  the  Tigris  began  suddenly  to  rise, 
greatlv  interfering  with  mv  progress,  when  the  two  steamers 
came  in  sight  of  each  other.  I  stood  on  the  bridge  of 
the  English  "  Khalifa,"  intently  looking  at  the  approaching 
Turkish  vessel,  which  flew  the  French  colors  from  the  top 
of  its  mast.  A  tall  figure  could  be  faintly  distinguished  on 
the  passing  boat,  leaning  against  its  iron  railing  and  eagerly 
scanning  the  horizon  with  a  field-glass.  A  flash  of  light 
separated  the  thick  black  clouds  which  had  changed  day 
into  twilight,  and  illuminated  the  two  steamers  for  a  mo- 
ment. I  recognized  the  features  of  De  Sarzec,  the  newly 
(1899)  appointed  minister  plenipotentiary  of  France,  who 
in  an  instant  had  drawn  a  handkerchief,  which  he  waved 
lustilv  on  his  fast  disappearing  boat  as  a  greeting  of  wel- 
come to  the  representative  of  the  Philadelphia  expedition. 
A  month  later  a  cordial  and  urgent  invitation  was  received 
from  the  French  camp  near  Tello.  I  still  regret  that  at 
that  moment  mv  own  pressing  duties  at  the  ruins  of  Nuffar 
did  not  allow  of  an  even  short  visit  to  Southern  Babvlonia, 
and  that  consequentlv  I  missed  my  last  chance  of  seeing 
De  Sarzec  in  the  midst  of  his  trenches  and  directing  his 
famous  excavations  in  person. 


DURING   lO'H  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      259 

Towards  the  end  of  May  we  both  were  back  in  Bagh- 
dad, and  for  a  whole  week  we  met  regularly  at  the  hospi- 
table house  of  the  American  vice-consul,  communicating  to 
each  other  the  results  of  our  latest  expeditions,  discussing 
our  new  plans  and  dwelling  with  especial  pleasure  on  the 
bright  prospect  of  methodical  explorations  in  the  numerous 
ruins  of  Shumer  and  /\kkad.  Seated  on  the  flat  roof  of 
our  temporary  abode,  we  used  to  enjoy  the  refreshing  even- 
ing hours  of  a  Babylonian  spring,  —  over  us  that  brilliant 
sky  in  the  knowledge  of  which  the  early  inhabitants  of  the 
country  excelled  all  other  nations,  below  us  the  murmuring 
waters  of  the  Tigris  which  gradually  expose  and  wash  awav 
the  tombs  of  by-gone  generations,  carrying  their  dust  into 
the  realm  of  the  god  Ea,  "  the  creator  of  the  Universe," 
and  far  away  into  the  ocean  to  the  island  of  the  blessed. 
De  Sarzec  himself  looked  exceedingly  tired  and  frequently 
complained  of  chills  and  fever.  When  we  finally  separated, 
he  took  the  direct  route  to  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean 
by  way  oi  Der  and  Aleppo,  while  the  present  writer  rode 
along  the  western  bank  of  the  Tigris  and  examined  the 
ruins  of  Assyria  and  Cappadocia  before  he  reached  Europe 
at  Constantinople.  De  Sarzec's  hope  of  a  speedy  return  to 
his  Arabs  and  ruins  was  not  to  be  realized.  On  May  30, 
1 90 1,  at  the  age  of  sixty-four  years,  the  great  French 
explorer  succumbed  suddenly,  at  Poitiers,  to  a  disease  of  the 
liver,  which  he  had  contracted  during  his  long  sojourn  in 
the  East.  Only  a  few  weeks  later  his  faithful  companion, 
who  so  often  had  dwelt  with  him  in  the  tents  of  the 
desert,  assisting  and  encouraging  him  in  the  great  task  of 
his  life,  followed  her  husband  on  his  last  journey  to  "the 
land  without  return." 

The  French  government,  fully  recognizing  the  extraordi- 
nary importance  of  De  Sarzec's  work  and  the  necessity  of 
its  continuation,  has  taken  steps  at  an  earlv  date  to  resume 
the    exploration    of  Tello,  so   gloriously   initiated   and    for 


260  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  carried  on  by  its  own  represen- 
tative. Great  results  doubtless  will  again  be  forthcoming. 
But  significant  and  surprising  as  the  success  of  future  expe- 
ditions to  this  ancient  seat  of  civilization  may  be,  the  name 
of  De  Sarzec,  to  whom  science  owes  the  resurrection  of 
ancient  Chaldean  art  and  the  restoration  of  a  long  forgot- 
ten leaf  in  the  history  of  mankind,  will  always  stand  out  as 
an  illustrious  example  of  rare  energy,  great  intelligence,  and 
indefatigable  patience  devoted  to  the  cause  of  archaeology 
in  the  service  and  for  the  honor  of  his  country. 

ENGLISH     EXCAVATIONS    UNDER    RASSAM     AT    BABYLON, 
EL-BIRS,    AND    ABU     HABBA 

The  exceptional  terms  and  the  wide  scope  of  the  firman 
granted  to  Sir  Henry  Layard  in  1878,  induced  Hormuzd 
Rassam,  then  in  charge  of  the  British  excavations  in  Assy- 
ria, to  extend  his  operations  at  once  to  as  many  ruins  as 
possible.  In  the  interest  of  a  strictly  scientific  exploration 
of  the  ancient  remains  of  Asshur  and  Babel,  this  decision 
must  be  regretted,  unless  we  regard  the  rapid  working  of  new 
mines  of  antiquities  and  the  mere  accumulation  of  inscribed 
tablets  the  principal  —  not  to  say  the  only  —  object  of 
archaeological  missions  to  the  countries  of  the  Euphrates  and 
Tigris.  But  whatever  may  be  said  against  Rassam's  strange 
methods,  radicallv  different  from  those  of  other  recent  Baby- 
lonian explorers,  and  largely  responsible  for  the  irreparable 
loss  of  manv  important  data  necessarv  for  a  satisfactory  re- 
construction of  the  topography  and  history  of  the  different 
sites  excavated  by  him,  he  deserves  credit  for  his  extraordi- 
nary mobility  and  devotion  to  what  he  regarded  his  duty,^ 
and  by  which  he  was  enabled  to  gather  an  immense  number 
of  cuneiform  texts  and  to  enrich  the  collections  of  the  British 
Museum  with  many  priceless  treasures. 

1  Comp.  Rassam,  "Asshur  and  the  Land  ofNimrod,"  New  York,  1897, 
P-  363- 


DURING  IQTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      2G1 

Towards  the  middle  of  February,  1879,  he  commenced 
his  excavations  of  Babylonian  mounds,  which  for  more  than 
three  years  ^  were  carried  on  by  native  overseers  under  his 
general  supervision.     The  first  ruins  to  which  he  directed 
his  attention  were  Babylon  and  Borsippa  (Kl-Birs).     Arab 
diggers,  forming  a  secret  and  strong  combination,  were  then 
engaged  in  extracting  bricks  from  the  walls  and  buttresses 
of  Babil.      As  soon  as  they  heard  of  the  foreigner's  inten- 
tions, they  began  to  watch  his  movements  with  jealousy  and 
suspicion.     In  order  to  protect  himself  against  their  unscru- 
pulous machinations,  and  at  the  same  time  to  secure  their 
confidence  and  assistance  for  his  own  operations,  Rassam 
proposed  to  them  to  enter  his  service  on  the  promise  that 
all  the  plain  bricks  which  might  be  unearthed  should   be- 
come their  property.      Naturally  they  agreed  readily  to  an 
arrangement  which  gave  them  regular  wages  besides  their 
ordinary  share  in  the  excavated  building  material.      During 
the  two  or  three  months  which,  in  the  course  of  his   Baby- 
lonian  excavations,  he  could   spend   in   the   trenches   near 
Hilla,  he  examined  and  followed   the   excavations   of  the 
Arab  brick-diggers  at  Babil  with  undivided  attention.      No 
sooner  had  they  struck  four  exquisitely  built  wells  of  red 
granite   in    the    southern    centre   of  the    mound,   than    he 
hurried  to  the  scene  and  uncovered  them  entirely.     They 
still  were  140  feet  high,  and  communicated  with  an  aqueduct 
or  canal  supplied  with  water  from  the  Euphrates.     From  the 
peculiarity  of  their  material,  which  must  have  been  brought 
from  a  great  distance  in  Northern  Mesopotamia  ;  from  the 
fine  execution  of  the  enormous  circular  stones,"  which  had 
been  bored  and  made  to  fit  each  other  so  exactly  that  each 
well  appeared  as  if  hewn  in  one  solid  block  ;  from  the  nu- 
merous remains  of  huge  walls  and  battlements  built  of  kiln- 

1  Comp.  the  summary  of  Rassam' s  activity  on  Assyrian  and   Babylonian 
ruins  given  on  p.  203,  se^.,  footnote.      He  ceased  his  excavations  July,  1882. 
-  Each  stone  was  about  three  feet  high. 


262  EXPLORATIONS   IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

burned  bricks,  so  eagerly  sought  by  the  Arabs  ;  from  the 
commanding  position  of  the  whole  lofty  mound,  —  details 
which  agreed  most  remarkably  with  characteristic  features 
of  the  hanging  gardens,  as  described  by  Diodorus  and  Pliny, 
—  Rassam  came  to  the  conclusion  that  this  great  wonder  of 
the  ancient  world  could  only  be  represented  by  Babil,  a  view 
first  held  by  Rich,  and  for  various  additional  reasons  also 
shared  by  the  present  writer. 

On  the  assumption  that  the  large  basalt  lion  of  the  Qasr, 
so  often  mentioned  by  earlier  explorers,  must  have  flanked 
the  gate  of  a  palace  in  the  days  of  the  Babylonian  monarchs, 
he  searched  in  vain  for  "  another  similar  monolith,  which 
stood  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  entrance."  After  cutting 
a  few  trial  trenches  into  the  centre  of  the  mound,  not  far 
from  the  ruin  where  Mignan,  Layard,  and  Oppert  had  left 
their  traces,  Rassam  abandoned  this  vinpromising  site  for 
other  less  disturbed  localities  in  its  neighborhood. 

As  long  as  he  employed  workmen  on  the  ruins  of  the 
capital  of  Amraphel  and  Nebuchadrezzar,  he  concentrated  his 
efforts  at  the  two  southern  groups  of  the  vast  complex,  known 
under  the  names  of 'Omran  ibn  'Ali  and  Jumjuma.^  Though 
succeeding  as  little  as  those  who  excavated  there  before  him 
in  finding  large  sculptured  monuments,  Rassam  was  amply 
repaid  for  his  labors  at  the  last-named  place,  by  discovering 
a  great  many  of  the  so-called  contract  tablets,  left  by  private 
individuals,  or  forming  part  of  the  archives  of  business  firms, 
among  which  the  famous  house  of  Egibi  plaved  a  most  pro- 
minent role.  Unfortunately  not  a  few  of  these  documents 
crumbled  to  pieces  as  soon  as  thev  were  removed,  the  damp 
soil  in  which  thev  had  been  Iving  being  impregnated  with 
nitre.  The  first  great  collection  of  this  class  of  tablets  had 
come  from  the  same  mound  in  the  winter  of  1875— 76,  when 
Arab  brick-diggers  unearthed  a  number  of  clay  jars  filled  with 
more  than  3000  documents,  which,  shortly  before  his  death, 

^   Comp.   Map    No.   2. 


DURING  ID'-n   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      2G3 

George  Smith  had  acquired  for  the  British  Museum.  They 
all  belonged  to  the  final  period  of  Babylonian  history,  to  the 
years  when  for  the  last  time  Nabopolassar  and  his  successors 
restored  the  glory  of  the  great  city  on  the  Euphrates.  Their 
contents  revealed  to  us  an  entirely  new  phase  of  Babylonian 
civilization.  We  became  acquainted  with  the  every-day  life 
of  the  different  classes  of  the  population,  and  we  became  wit- 
nesses of  their  mutual  relations  and  manifold  transactions. 
We  obtained  an  insight  into  the  details  of  their  households, 
their  kinds  of  property  and  its  administration,  their  incomes 
and  their  taxes,  their  modes  of  trading  and  their  various  oc- 
cupations, their  methods  in  irrigating  and  cultivating  fields 
and  in  raising  stocks,  their  customs  in  marrving  and  adopt- 
ing children,  the  position  of  their  slaves,  and  many  other 
interesting  features  of  the  life  of  the  people.  Above  all, 
these  tablets  showed  us  the  highly  developed  legal  institu- 
tions of  a  great  nation,  thus  furnishing  an  important  new 
source  for  the  history  of  comparative  jurisprudence.  There 
is  scarcely  a  case  provided  against  by  the  minute  regulations 
of  the  Roman  law  which  has  not  its  parallel  or  prototype  in 
ancient  Chaldea. 

Valuable  as  all  these  small  and  unbaked  tablets  proved  for 
our  knowledge  of  the  private  life,  the  commercial  intercourse, 
and  the  chronology  of  the  time  of  the  Chaldean  and  Persian 
dynasties,  they  did  not  constitute  the  entire  harvest  which 
Rassam  could  gather.  There  were  other  important  docu- 
ments of  a  literary  and  historical  character  rescued  from  the 
same  vicinity.  We  mention  onlv  the  broken  cylinder  of 
Cyrus  containing  the  official  record  of  the  conquest  of  Babv- 
lon  (539  B.  c),  and  in  its  phraseology  sometimes  curiously 
approaching  the  language  of  Isaiah.^ 

^  Comp.  chaps.  44  (end)  and  45  with  my  remarks  on  PI.  t,^  of  the 
"New  Gallery  of  Illustrations"  in  Holman's  "Self-pronouncing  S.  S. 
Teachers'  Bible,"  Philadelphia,  1897,  According  to  Rassam's  own  state- 
ment (/.  c.,p.  267),  the  cylinder  of  Cyrus  was   not  found    in   the  ruins  cf 


264  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Rassam's  excavations,  conducted  at  the  foot  of  El-Birs 
and  in  the  adjoining  mound  of  Ibrahim  el-Khalil,  which 
doubtless  conceals  some  of  the  most  conspicuous  buildings 
of  ancient  Borsippa,  were  likewise  productive  of  good  re- 
sults. A  fine  collection  of  inscribed  tablets  came  from  the 
latter  ruin,  while  about  eighty  chambers  and  galleries  of  a 
large  building  were  laid  bare  on  the  platform  to  the  east  of 
the  stage-tower  which  in  previous  years  had  been  partly  ex- 
plored by  Rawlinson.  This  unique  complex,  mistaken  by 
Rassam  for  "  another  palace  of  Nebuchadrezzar,"  turned 
out  to  be  nothing  less  than  the  famous  temple  of  Ezida, 
sacred  to  Nebo,  the  tutelar  deity  of  Borsippa.  All  the  rich 
property  of  the  god  and  his  priests,  with  the  many  valuable 
gifts  deposited  by  powerful  kings  and  pious  pilgrims,  had 
been  carried  away  long  before.  Heaps  of  rubbish,  broken 
capitals  and  fallen  pillars,  interspersed  with  pieces  of  enam- 
elled tiles  once  embellishing  its  ceilings  and  walls,  were  all 
that  was  left  of  the  former  splendor.  A  small  bas-relief, 
two  boundary  stones,  an  inscribed  barrel  cylinder,  and  the 
fragment  of  a  heavy  bronze  threshold  of  Nebuchadrezzar, 
on  the  edge  of  which  the  first  ^  six  lines  of  a  cuneiform  legend 
had  been  wrongly  arranged  by  an  uneducated  engraver,  were 
the  few  antiquities  of  true  Babylonian  origin  which,  after 
infinite  labor  and  pain,  could  be  rescued  from  this  scene  of 

the  Qasr,  as  asserted,  e.  g.  by  Hagen,  Beitrage  zur  Assyriologie,  vol.  ii, 
p.  204,  and  Delitzsch,  Bah-^lon,  2d  ed.,  Leipzig,  1 901,  p.  13,  but  in  the 
mound  of  Jumjuma. 

^  There  are  remains  of  three  cuneiform  characters  at  the  end  of  the  broken 
edge,  which  is  four  inches  thick,  so  that  the  inscription  must  have  had  at 
least  nine  lines.  Properly  speaking,  the  preserved  portion  of  the  inscription 
consists  of  two  columns,  three  lines  each.  But  by  disregarding  the  sepa- 
rating line  between  the  two  columns  on  the  tablet  from  which  he  copied,  the 
scribe  changed  the  six  short  lines  into  one  column  with  three  long  lines.  A 
picture  of  the  threshold,  which,  in  its  present  state,  measures  a  little  over  five 
feet  by  one  foot  eight  inches,  was  published  by  Rassam  in  his  first  report, 
««  Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology,"  vol.  viii,  p.   188. 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      265 

Utter  devastation.  But  the  well-preserved  terra-cotta  cylin- 
der proved  of  exceptional  value  in  giving  us  the  brief  history 
of  the  final  restoration  of  Nebo's  renowned  sanctuary,  in 
270  B.  c,  by  Antiochus  Soter,  "  the  first-born  son  of  Seleu- 
cus,  the  Macedonian  king."  So  far  as  our  present  know- 
ledge goes,  it  is  the  last  royal  document  composed  in  the 
Old-Babylonian  writing  and  language. 

There  are  many  important  finds  connected  with  the  name 
of  Rassam  as  an  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  explorer.  The 
discovery  of  Ashurbanapal's  north  palace,  with  its  library  and 
art  treasures  at  Qoyunjuk,  and  the  unearthing  of  Shalman- 
eser's  bronze  gates  at  Balawat,  will  alone  suffice  to  keep  his 
memory  fresh  forever  in  the  history  of  Assyrian  excavations. 
But  among  all  the  remarkable  results  which  through  his  skill 
and  energy  he  wrested  from  the  soil  of  Babylonia  there  is 
none  greater  and  more  far-reaching  in  its  bearings  upon  the 
whole  science  of  Assyriology  than  his  identification  and  par- 
tial excavation  of  the  site  of  Sippara.  Every  trace  of  this 
famous  ancient  city,  in  connection  with  Agade  or  Akkad 
(Gen.  10  :  10),  so  often  mentioned  in  the  cuneiform  literature, 
and  occasionally  referred  to  even  by  classical  writers,  seemed 
to  have  vanished  completely.  Numerous  attempts  had  been 
^made  to  determine  its  ruins.  Rassam  himself  had  thought 
for  a  while  of  Tell  Ibrahim,  which  Rawlinson  identified  with 
Cuthah  (2  Kings  17  :  24) ;  others  had  hit  upon  Tell  Shaisha- 
bar,  about  eighteen  miles  to  the  south  of  Baghdad  ;  others 
again  were  fully  convinced  that  it  was  represented  by  Tell 
Sifaira,  between  the  Nahr  'Isa  and  the  Euphrates  ;  while 
modern  geographers  inclined  generally  to  place  it  at  the 
present  Musayyib.  This  only  seemed  certain,  that  the  city 
must  have  been  situated  in  Northern  Babylonia,  not  far 
from  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates.  George  Smith  was  the 
first  to  propose  the  ruins  of  Abu  Habba  as  its  probable  site. 
They  extend  to  the  south  of  the  Nahr  el-Malik  (the  Naar- 
malcha  of  Pliny),  to-day  more  commonly  called   the  Nahr 


266  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Yusufiye,  about  halfway  between  "  the  great  river  "  ^  and  the 
caravan  road  which  leads  from  Baghdad  to  Kerbelaand  Hilla, 
Nobody,  however,  had  apparently  taken  notice  of  his  stray 
remark  in  the  "  Records  of  the  Past,""  and  Rassam,  unfa- 
miliar as  he  was  with  Assyriological  publications,  had  surely 
never  heard  about  it.  He  went  to  search  for  the  site  ot  the 
city  in  his  own  way. 

It  was  in  December,  1880.  After  half  a  year's  absence 
from  the  plains  of  'Iraq  el-' Arab!  he  had  returned  from 
Kurdistan  and  Mosul  to  superintend  his  excavations  at 
Babylon  and  Borsippa  in  person,  and  to  examine  the  dis- 
tricts to  the  north  and  south  of  them  with  a  view  of  locat- 
ing other  promising  ruins  for  future  operations.  As  soon 
as  he  had  satisfied  himself  that  in  the  immediate  environ- 
ments of  Hilla  and  Kl-Birs  there  was  no  ruin  to  tempt 
him,  he  proceeded  northward  by  way  of  Tell  Ibrahim  and 
Mahmudiye,  "  bent  upon  visiting  every  mound  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  seeing  if  he  could  not  hit  upon  the  exact  site 
[of  Sippara]  to  the  north  of  Babylon."  Dissatisfied  with 
the  results  of  various  trials  to  locate  it,  he  finally  had  arrived 
and  settled  temporarily  at  Mahmudiye.  The  number  of  his 
workmen  from  Jumjuma,  soon  increased  from  the  ranks  of 
passing  pilgrims  and  wayfaring  loiterers,  were  ordered  to  dig 
at  some  of  the  principal  ruins  around  the  village.  Mean- 
while he  himself  wandered  from  mound  to  mound,  searching 
and  hoping,  only  to  be  later  disappointed. 

On  previous  occasions  he  had  repeatedly  heard  of  three 
other  conspicuous  tel/s  to  the  north  and  northwest  of  Mah- 
mudiye, called  by  the  Arabs  E.d-Der,  Abu  Habba,  and 
Harqawi.^     His  way  from  Baghdad  to  Hilla  had   often  led 

^  From  which  they  are  distant  not  more  than  four  miles  in  a  direct  line. 
Comp.  Rassam,  "  Asshur  and  the  Land  of  Nimrod,"  New  York,  1897, 
p.  403. 

2    1st  ed.,  vol.  V  (London,  1875),  p.   107,  No.  56. 

8  Generally  pronounced  Hargawi  in  the  modern  dialect  of  the  country,  and 


DURING  19T1I  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      2G7 

him  close  by  them.  But  as  the  peculiar  topographical  and 
atmospheric  conditions  of  Babylonia  render  it  extremely 
difficult  to  judge  the  height  of  a  mound  correctly  from  a 
distance,  or  to  distinguish  it  from  the  huge  embankments 
of  the  numerous  canals  which  intersect  the  alluvial  plain 
everywhere,  Rassam  had  never  paid  much  attention  to  the 
stories  of  the  natives.  This  time,  however,  his  interest  was 
suddenly  aroused.  We  quote  from  his  own  account :  "  One 
day,  on  returning  to  my  host's  house  at  Mahmudiye,  his 
brother,  Mohammed,  showed  me  a  fragment  of  kiln-burnt 
brick  with  a  few  arrow-headed  characters  on  it,  which  he  said 
he  had  picked  up  at  the  ruins  of  Der  when  he  was  returning 
from  a  wedding  to  which  he  had  been  invited.  I  no  sooner 
saw  the  relic  than  1  began  to  long  for  a  visit  to  the  spot, 
and  I  lost  no  time  the  next  day  in  riding  to  it.  It  happened 
then  that  the  Euphrates  had  overflowed  its  banks,  and  the 
Mahmudiye  Canal,  which  is  generally  drv  nine  months  in 
the  year,  was  running  and  inundating  the  land  between  Der 
and  the  village  of  Mahmudive;  the  consequence  was  we 
had  to  go  a  round-about  way  to  reach  that  place.  We  had 
first  to  pass  the  Sanctuary  of  Seyyid  'Abdallah,  the  reputed 
saint  of  that  country,  situated  about  six  miles  to  the  north- 
west of  Mahmudiye  ;  and  we  then  veered  to  the  right  and 
proceeded  to  Der  in  an  easterly  direction.  In  about  half 
an  hour's  ride  further,  we  came  to  an  inclosure  of  what 
seemed  to  me  an  artificial  mound,  and  on  ascending  it  I 
asked  my  guide  if  that  was  the  ruin  in  which  he  had  picked 
up  the  inscribed  brick.  He  replied  in  the  negative,  but 
said  that  we  were  then  at  Abu  Habba,  and  Der  was  about 
an  hour  further  on.  I  could  scarcely  believe  my  eyes  on 
looking  down  and  finding  everything  under  my  horse's  feet 

situated  to  the  west  of  Abu  Habba,  while  Ed-Der  is  found  to  the  northeast 
of  the  latter.  Here,  as  well  as  in  passages  where  I  quote  literally  from  Ras- 
sam, I  have  quietly  changed  his  wretched  spellings  of  Arabic  and  Turkish 
names  in  accordance  with  a  more  scientific  method. 


268  EXPLOEATIOXS  IX  BIBLE  LANDS 

indicating  a  ruin  of  an  ancient  city  ;  and  if  I  had  had  any 
workmen  at  hand  I  would  have  then  and  there  placed  two 
or  three  gangs  to  try  the  spot.  I  was  then  standing  near  a 
small  pyramid  situated  at  the  westerly  limit  of  the  mound, 
which  I  was  told  contained  a  golden  model  of  the  ark  in 
which  Noah  and  his  family  were  saved  from  the  Deluge, 
and  that  the  second  father  of  mankind  had  it  buried  there 
as  a  memorial  of  the  event,"  —  apparently  a  faint  and  dis- 
torted reminiscence  of  the  old  Babylonian  tradition  pre- 
served by  Berossos,  and  according  to  which  before  the  great 
flood  Xisouthros  (/.  e.,  Noah),  by  order  of  his  god,  buried 
the  tablets  inscribed  with  "  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end 
of  all  things,"  at  Sippara. 

Though  rising  scarcely  more  than  thirty  to  forty^  feet 
above  the  desert,  the  ruins  of  Abu  Habba  are  of  consid- 
erable extent.  Except  on  the  western  side,  where  the  coni- 
cal remains  of  the  stage-tower  are  situated  near  a  dry  branch 
of  the  Euphrates,  they  are  surrounded  by^  large  walls,  which 
on  the  northwest  and  northeast  are  almost  perfect.  The 
rectangular  parallelogram  thus  formed  encloses  an  area  of 
more  than  1,210,000  square  yards,^  or  about  250  acres, 
its  longest  side  measuring  more  than  1400  yards.  Only  the 
third  part  of  this  whole  space  is  occupied  by  an  irregular 
conglomeration  of  mounds  which  conceal  what  is  left  of  the 
ancient  city.  As  soon  as  Rassam  had  taken  a  hasty  survey 
of  the  prominent  site,  he  lost  no  time  in  making  the  neces- 

^  The  3500  square  yards  given  by  Rassam  ("  Asshur  and  the  Land  ot 
Nimrod,"  New  York,  1897,  p.  399)  for  the  whole  area  are  an  evident  mis- 
take, the  temple  mound  alone  being  considerably  larger.  The  measurements 
quoted  above  are  based  upon  my  own  calculations  in  connection  with  a  per- 
sonal visit  to  the  ruins.  They  were  recently  confirmed  by  Scheil,  who  kindly 
sent  me  the  following  statement  before  the  final  proof  was  passed:  "The 
enclosure  of  Sippar  is  1300  meters  [1422  yards]  long,  and  800  m.  [875 
yards]  wide.  The  temple  enclosure  is  about  400  m.  [437  yards]  square." 
In  other  words  the  temple  area  represents  about  190,969  square  yards,  or 
nearly  39^  acres. 


BURING   lOTfi  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND   BABYLONIA      2G9 

sary  preparations  for  immediate  excavations.  No  Arab 
encampment  being  anywhere  near  the  ruins,  he  established 
his  headquarters  at  Seyvid  'Abdallah,  where  the  guardian 
of  the  sanctuary  and  his  near  relatives  lived  in  peaceful 
seclusion. 

Operations  were  commenced  near  the  pyramid  in  January, 
1 88 1.  On  the  very  first  day  the  workmen  dug  up  pieces 
of  a  barrel  cylinder  and  fragments  of  inscribed  bricks  and 
bitumen.  A  little  later  they  came  upon  the  wall  of  a  cham- 
ber which  presented  all  the  characteristic  features  of  true 
Babylonian  architecture.  Soon  afterwards  they  discovered 
similar  rooms  in  different  parts  of  the  same  mound.  There 
could  be  no  longer  any  doubt ;  Rassam  had  struck  a  large 
ancient  building  of  great  interest  and  importance.  En- 
couraged by  this  rapid  success  of  the  first  few  days,  he 
prosecuted  his  researches  with  redoubled  energy.  As  he 
proceeded  with  his  work,  he  entered  a  chamber  which  at- 
tracted his  curiosity  at  once.  Contrary  to  his  previous 
experience,  it  was  paved  with  asphalt  instead  of  marble  or 
brick.  He  ordered  his  men  to  break  through  the  pavement 
and  to  examine  the  ground  below.  They  had  scarcely  begun 
to  remove  the  earth  at  the  southeast  corner,  when  three  feet 
below  the  surface  they  discovered  an  inscribed  terra-cotta 
trough  or  box  closed  with  a  lid.  Inside  lay  a  marble  tablet, 
eleven  inches  and  a  half  long  by  seven  inches  wide,  broken 
into  eight  pieces,  but  otherwise  complete.  It  w^as  covered 
with  six  columns  of  the  finest  writing,  and  adorned  with  a 
beautiful  bas-relief  on  the  top  of  the  obverse.  The  subject 
represented  is  the  following  :  A  god  seated  in  his  shrine 
is  approached  by  two  priests  and  a  worshipper,  who  is  prob- 
ably the  king  himself.  The  three  persons  stand  before  the 
disk  of  the  sun,  placed  upon  an  altar  and  held  with  ropes  by 
the  two  divine  attendants  of  Shamash,  Malik  and  Bunene, 
who,  according  to  Babylonian  mythology,  as  guides  direct 
the  course  of  the   fiery  orb  "  covering   heaven   and   earth 


270 


EXTLORATIONS  IX  BIBLE  LANDS 


with  lustre."^  The  cuneiform  legend  in  front  of  the  sanctu- 
ary is  identical  with  the  label  inscribed  on  each  side  of  the 
box    in  which    the   tablet   was    placed,  and    serves    as    an 

explanation  of  the 
pictorial  represen- 
tation :  "  Image  of 
Shamash  [the  Sun- 
god]  ,  the  great 
lord,  dw'clling  in 
Ebabbara,  situated 
in  Sippar."  The  in- 
terpretation of  the 
other  two  small  le- 
gends written  above 
and  below  the  roof 
of  the  shrine  has 
offered  considera- 
ble difficultv.  Thev 
are  evidentlv  also 
labels  which,  in  the 
briefest  possible 
form,  indicate  im- 
portant and  char- 
acteristic details  of 
the  golden  image 
mentioned  in  the 
long  inscription  be- 
low, and  of  which 
the  stone  relief  is  a 
faithful  reproduction.  Similar  to  those  found  bv  Smith  on 
clay  tablets  in  the  royal  librarv  of  Nineveh,"  they  are  to  be 

^  Comp.  iv  R.  20,  No.  2,  I.  4,  and  the  beautiful  hymn  to  the  Sun-god, 
first  pubhshed  by  Pinches,  in  the  "  Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Biblical 
Arch.Tology,"  vol.  viii,  pp.   167,  se^. 

'^  Comp.  p.   198,  above,  and  George  Smith,  "Assyrian  Discoveries,"  3d 


Marble  Tablet  of  King  Nabu-apal-iddina,  about  850  b.  c. 
From  the  temple  of  the  Hun-god  at  Sippar  a 


DURING  W'/f  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      271 

regarded  as  instructions  and  explanations  for  the  artist  ^  who 
in  days  to  come  may  be  called  upon  to  make  another  image. 
Two  terra- cotta  moulds,'-  showing  all  the  details  of  our 
bas-relief,  were  found  in  the  box  with  the  stone  tablet.     The 

ed..  New  York,  1876,  p.  411,/^^^.  Comp.,  also,  Bezold,  "Catalogue  of  the 
Cuneiform  Tablets  in  the  Kouyunjik  Collection  of  the  British  Museum,"  vol. 
V  (London,   i8gg),  pp.  xix  and  xxvii,  5. 

^  The  upper  inscription  reads  :  Si//,  Shar/iash,  Ishtar  i//a  pu-ut  apsi  i//a 
bi-rit  Siri  ti-r///  i////adu  {-u),  i.  e..  Sin,  Sharriash,  a//d  Ishtar  (whose 
symbols  are  engrav^ed  below  this  inscription  )  have  bee//  placed  ( on  the  golden 
image,  or  are  to  be  placed  on  a  new  image  that  may  be  made  ;  the  verbal 
form  can  be  regarded  as  pteterite  or  present  tense)  opposite  the  ocea//  (indi- 
cated at  the  lower  end  of  the  bas-relief  by  wavy  lines  ;  comp.,  also,  v  R. 
63,  col.  ii,  5)  betweer/  the  s/take  (in  the  year  1887,  when  at  the  request  of 
Dr.  Hayes  Ward  I  gave  him  my  interpretation  of  this  bas-relief  at  his  house 
in  Newark,  I  called  his  attention  to  the  important  fact  generally  overlooked, 
that  the  back  and  top  of  the  shrine  represents  an  immense  snake,  whose  head 
can  be  clearly  recognized  over  the  column  in  front  of  the  god)  a/id  the  rope 
(  =  ti/z/zni,  by  which  the  altar  and  disk  of  the  sun  are  suspended.  But  it  is 
perhaps  better  to  interpret  ti-n/i  as  a  dialectical  or  inexact  writing  tor  di-mi, 
intended  ior  di ////// i,  "column,"  which  we  see  immediatelv  before  the  god 
supporting  the  roof  of  his  house). 

The  lower  inscription,  which  stands  as  a  label  near  the  head-dress  of  the 
god,  reads  :  agii  Shamash,  mushshi  agO.  Shamash,  which  I  interpret,  tiara 
of  Shamash,  make  the  tiara  of  Shamash  bright  (mashU  =//amaru,  ii  R. 
47,  58,  and  59  e,  f,  here  imperat.  ii.-^  This  special  order  must  be  inter- 
preted in  the  light  of  the  difficult  passage,  v  R.  63,  col.  i,  43  to  col.  ii,  40, 
especially  col.  ii,  36-39,  "I  made  the  golden  tiara  [of  Shamash]  anew 
and  made  it  bright  as  the  day  ").  The  Sun-god  was  the  bringer  of  light  ; 
rays  of  light  therefore  were  supposed  to  go  forth  from  his  head  and  tiara,  as 
they  did  from  the  head  of  Apollo  on  the  coins  of  Rhodes.  Even  if  ///ushshi 
be  interpreted  as  a  noun,  it  cannot  refer  to  the  wand  and  rod  in  the  right 
hand  of  Shamash,  as  has  been  supposed,  but  it  must  refer  to  the  tiara,  of 
which  then  it  possibly  denotes  a  part,  —  a  view  supported  bv  the  fact  that 
the  two  lines  form  but  one  label,  and  bv  the  circumstance  that  in  v  R.  63, 
col.  i,  43,  seqq.,  Nabonidos  gives  a  detailed  description  as  to  how  a  correct 
tiara  of  the  Sun-god  has  to  look. 

^  One  of  them,  together  with  a  cylinder  of  Nabonidos,  is  in  the  Ottoman 
Museum  at  Constantinople. 
20 


272  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

golden  image,  just  referred  to,  was  the  work  of  King  Nabu- 
apal-iddina.  In  connection  with  the  pillaging  of  the  tem- 
ple by  Sutean  hordes  in  a  previous  war,  the  old  image  of 
the  god  had  been  destroyed.  All  efforts  to  find  a  copy 
of  the  famous  representation  had  proved  in  vain.  Finally, 
in  852  B.C.,  a  terra-cotta  relief^  was  accidentally  discovered 
on  the  western  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  which  enabled 
Nabia-apal-iddina  to  revive  the  ancient  cult  in  its  former 
glory.  In  order  to  secure  its  continuity,  in  case  another 
national  calamity  should  befall  his  country,  the  king  had  an 
exact  copy  of  the  original  with  explanatory  labels  carved 
at  the  top  of  his  memorial  tablet,  which  was  buried  in  the 
ground. 

In  unearthing  this  stone,  Rassam  had  discovered  the  fa- 
mous temple  of  Shamash  and,  at  the  same  time,  identified 
one  of  the  earliest  Babylonian  cities.  He  stood  in  the  very 
sanctuary  in  which  Babylonian  monarchs  once  rendered 
homage  to  the  golden  image  of  their  god.  In  a  room  adjoin- 
ing the  one  just  described,  the  fortunate  explorer  found  two 
large  barrel  cylinders  of  Nabonidos  in  a  fine  state  of  preser- 
vation, and  "  a  curiously  hewn  stone  symbol  .  .  .  ending  on 
the  top  in  the  shape  of  a  cross,"  and  "  inscribed  with  archaic 
characters."  The  text  of  these  cylinders  proved  an  historical 
source  of  the  utmost  importance.  The  royal  arch^ologist, 
to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  so  many  precious  chronologi- 
cal data,  delighted  more  in  excavating  ancient  temples  and 
reviving  half-forgotten  cults  than  in  administering  the  affairs 
of  his  crumbling  empire.  Sippara,  situated  scarcely  thirty 
miles  to  the  north  of  Babylon,  and  renowned  equally  for  its 
venerable  cult  and  its  magnificent  librarv,  naturally  received 
his  special   attention.      After  a  poetical    description   of  the 

^  Col.  iii,  19,  sc^.  :  usurti  salmishu  sirpu  sha  khasbi,  "the  relief  of  his 
image  in  terra-cotta."  For  sirpu  sha  khasbi,  "something  in  terra-cotta,"  a 
terra-cotta  relief,  figurine,  etc.,  comp.  the  verb  sarapu,  "to  burn,  bake 
(bricks),"  quoted  by  Meissner,  Suppi.  zu  den  Assyr.  Ifdrterbuchern,  p.  82. 


DURING  IQTir  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      273 

principal  circumstances  and  events  which  led  to  the  de- 
struction and  his  subsequent  restoration  of  the  temple  of 
Sin  at  Haran,  Nabonidos  proceeds  to  inform  us  how  the 
temple  of  Shamash,  "  the  judge  of  heaven  and  earth,"  had 
decayed  in  Sippar  within  less  than  fifty  years  after  its  repa- 
ration by  Nebuchadrezzar.  To  the  mind  of  the  king  there 
was  only  one  reason  which  could  account  sufficiently  for  this 
alarming  fact,  —  the  displeasure  of  the  god  himself.  His 
predecessor  apparently  had  not  followed  the  exact  outline 
and  dimensions  of  the  oldest  sanctuary,  which,  according  to 
Babylonian  conception,^  must  be  strictly  kept  to  insure  the 
favor  of  the  god  and  the  preservation  of  his  dwelling  place 
on  earth.  Nabonidos,  therefore,  ordered  his  soldiers  to  tear 
down  the  walls  and  to  search  for  the  original  foundation 
stone.  Eighteen  cubits  deep  the  workmen  descended  into 
the  ground.  After  infinite  labor  and  trouble  the  last  Chal- 
dean ruler  of  Babvlon  succeeded  in  bringing  to  light  the 
foundation  stone  of  Naram-Sin,  the  son  of  Sargon  of  Agade, 
"which  for  3200  years  no  previous  king  had  seen,"  con- 
veying to  us  by  this  statement  the  startling  news  that  this 
great  ancient  monarch  lived  about  3750  b.  c,  a  date  fully 
corroborated  by  my  own  excavations  at  Nuffar. 

No  sooner  had  the  rumor  of  Rassam's  extraordinary  dis- 
covery spread  in  the  neighboring  districts  than  new  diffi- 
culties were  thrown  in  his  way  bv  jealous  property  owners 
and  intriguing  individuals.  But  with  his  old  pertinacity 
he  held  his  own  and  stuck  to  the  newlv  occupied  field,  the 
real  value  of  which  he  had  been  the  first  to  disclose.  For 
eighteen  months  British  excavations  were  carried  on  at 
Abu  Habba  without  interruption.  Rassam  could  remain 
at  the  ruins  only  the  third  part  of  all  this  time, —  the  expi- 
ration of  the  annual  grant  by  the  British  Museum  and  his 
desire  to  have  the  old  firman  renewed  as  soon   as  possible 

^  Comp.  Hilprecht,  Assyriaca,  part  I,  Boston  and  Halle,  1894,  pp.  54.. 
seq. 


274  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

requiring  his  journey  to  Europe.  But,  as  usual,  during  his 
absences  native  overseers  were  entrusted  with  the  continu- 
ation of  the  explorations  under  the  general  control  of  the 
British  Resident  at  Baghdad, 

In  the  spring  of  1882,  after  many  fruitless  efforts  to 
obtain  again  those  former  privileges,  which  the  awakened 
Turkish  interest  in  archaeological  treasures  could  concede 
no  longer,  he  returned  to  Babylonia  for  the  last  time.  As 
long  as  his  permit  lasted  (till  Aug.  16,  1882)  he  worked 
with  all  his  energy,  deepening  and  extending  his  trenches 
at  Babil  and  Abu  Habba,  and  despatching  whatever  was 
found  to  England.  It  was  particularly  the  temple  complex 
at  the  latter  place  upon  which  he  concentrated  his  personal 
attention.  According  to  his  calculation,  the  chambers  and 
halls  buried  here  must  have  amounted  to  nearly  three  hun- 
dred, one  hundred  and  thirtv  of  which  he  excavated.  They 
were  grouped  around  open  courts,  and  apparently  divided 
into  two  distinct  buildings  enclosed  by  breastworks.  The 
one  was  the  temple  proper,  and  the  other  contained  the 
rooms  for  the  priests  and  attendants.  That  King  Nabo- 
nidos  had  not  cleared  away  all  the  rubbish  of  the  older 
structure,  became  very  evident  from  the  fact  that  Rassam 
found  the  height  of  the  original  chambers  and  halls  to  be 
twenty-five  feet,  while  the  asphalt  pavement,  in  the  room 
described  above,  and  the  floors  of  the  adjoining  chambers 
rested  upon  debris  which  filled  half  their  depth. 

The  number  of  inscribed  objects  and  other  antiquities 
rescued  from  the  ruins  of  Abii  Habba  within  the  compara- 
tively short  period  of  a  year  and  a  half  is  enormous.  About 
60,000  inscribed  clav  tablets  are  said  to  have  been  taken 
from  different  rooms  of  the  temple.  Unfortunately  they 
were  not  baked  as  those  from  Qoyunjuk  ;  and  though  Ras- 
sam did  his  best  to  save  their  contents  by  baking  them 
immediatelv  after  their  discovery,  thousands  ot  them,  stick- 
ing together  or   heaped    upon   one    another,  crumbled    to 


DUIilNG   I'jni   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      275 

pieces  before  they  could  be  removed.  For  the  greater  part, 
these  documents  are  of  a  business  character,  referring  to 
the  administration  of  the  temple  and  its  property,  to  the 
daily  sacrifices  of  Shamash  and  other  gods,  to  the  weaving 
of  their  garments,  the  manufacture  of  their  jewelry  and  ves- 
sels, the  building  and  repairing  of  their  houses,  and  to  the 
execution  of  various  orders  given  in  connection  with  the 
worship  of  their  images  and  the  maintenance  of  their  priest- 
hood. At  the  same  time  they  make  us  acquainted  with  the 
duties  and  daily  occupations  of  the  different  classes  of  temple 
officers  and  their  large  body  of  servants,  with  the  ordinary 
tithes  paid  bv  the  faithful,  and  with  many  other  revenues 
accruing  to  the  sanctuary  from  all  kinds  of  gifts,  from  the 
lease  of  real  estate,  slaves,  and  animals,  and  from  the  sale 
of  products  from  fields  and  stables.  As  tithes  were  fre- 
quently paid  in  kind,  it  became  necessary  to  establish  regu- 
lar depots  along  the  principal  canals,  where  scribes  stored 
and  registered  everything  that  came  in.  Among  the  goods 
thus  received  we  notice  vegetables,  meat,  and  other  perish- 
able objects  which  the  temple  alone  could  not  consume,  and 
which,  therefore,  had  to  be  sold  or  exchanged  before  they 
decayed  or  decreased  in  value.  No  wonder  that  apart  from 
its  distinct  religious  sphere  the  great  temple  of  Shamash  at 
Sippara  in  manv  respects  resembled  one  of  the  great  busi- 
ness firms  of  Babel  or  Nippur. 

Apparentlv  the  bulk  of  the  temple  library  proper  lies  still 
buried  in  the  ruins  of  Abia  Habba.  Yet  among  the  tablets 
excavated  by  Rassam  there  are  many  of  a  strictly  literary 
character,  such  as  sign-lists  and  grammatical  exercises,  astro- 
nomical and  mathematical  texts,  letters,  hymns,  mythological 
fragments,  and  a  new  bilingual  version  of  the  Story  of  the 
Creation,  which  originally  formed  part  of  an  incantation. 
The  large  monuments  and  artistic  votive  offerings  deposited 
by  famous  monarchs  and  other  prominent  worshippers  in 
the  temple  of  Shamash  had  mostly  perished  or  been  carried 


276  EXrLORATIONii   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

away.  But  numerous  fragments  of  vases  and  statues  en- 
graved with  the  names  of  Manishtusu  and  Urumush  (Alu- 
sharshid),  two  ancient  kings  of  Kish,  the  fine  mace-head  of 
Sargon  I.,  the  curious  monument  of  Tukulti-Mer,  king 
of  Khana,  the  lion-head  of  Sennacherib,  several  well-pre- 
served "  boundary  stones,"  including  the  so-called  charter 
of  Nebuchadrezzar  I.  (about  1130  b.  c),  and  more  than 
thirty  terra-cotta  cylinders  bearing  Sumerian  or  Semitic  rec- 
ords of  the  building  operations  of  Hammurabi,  Nebuchad- 
rezzar II.,  Nabonidos,  and  other  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
rulers  testify  sufficiently  to  the  high  antiquity  of  the  sanc- 
tuary and  to  the  great  renown  in  which  it  was  held  by 
natives  and  foreigners  alike  from  the  range  of  the  Taurus 
to  the  shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  The  proposed  and  much 
repeated  identification  of  Sippara  with  the  Biblical  Sephar- 
vaim  is,  however,  a  philological  and  geographical^  impossi- 
bility. 

In  accordance  with  his  usual  custom,  followed  in  Assyria 
and  elsewhere,  Rassam  cut  trial  trenches  into  other  conspicu- 
ous mounds  whenever  he  was  in  Babylonia.  But  from  the 
nature  of  the  ruins  and  the  superficial  character  of  his  work, 
it  was  to  be  expected  that  they  would  be  barren  of  results 
unless  a  fortunate  accident  should  come  to  his  assistance. 
The  principal  sites  selected  by  him  for  such  tentative  oper- 
ations were  the  group  of  mounds  called  Dilhim,^  about  ten 
miles  to  the  south  of  Hilla,  where  he  discovered  a  few  in- 
scribed clay  tablets  ;  the  low  but  extensive  ruins  of  El-Qreni,^ 

1  According  to  2  Kings  18  :  34  ;  19  :  13  (comp.  Is,  36  :  19  ;  37  :  13) 
Sepharvaim  must  have  been  situated  not  in  Babylonia,  but  in  Syria.  Comp. 
Halevy  in  Journal  Asiatique,  1889,  pp.  18,  seqq.  ;  Zeitschrift  fur  Assyrio- 
logie,  vol.  ii,  pp.  401,  seq. 

2  Called  by  Rassam  Daillum  or  Tell-Daillam  ;  comp.  his  "  Asshur  and 
the  Land  of  Nimrod,"  New  York,  1897,  pp.  265  and  347. 

2  Rassam,  /.  c,  pp.  347,  seq.,  where  he  spells  the  name  Algara'mee 
according  to  its  modern  pronunciation. 


DURING   19 J J^  CENTURY :   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      277 

about  four  miles  to  the  north  of  Babil,  where  nothing  but 
bricks  indicated  their  Babylonian  origin ;  the  numerous 
le//s  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mahmudiye  mentioned  above, 
especially  Der/  which  yielded  only  the  common  bricks  of 
Nebuchadrezzar;  and  above  all,  the  enormous  ruins  of  Tell 
Ibrahim,  about  fifteen  miles  to  the  northeast  of  Hilla,  with 
the  nest  of  mounds  situated  to  the  southeast  of  it.^  Under 
extraordinary  deprivations  caused  by  the  absence  of  water 
and  frequent  sandstorms,  several  of  his  best  gangs  of  work- 
men remained  a  month  in  the  desert  around  Tell  Ibrahim. 
But  though  they  showed  a  rare  energy  and  labored  with  all 
their  might,  opening  no  less  than  twenty  different  tunnels 
and  trenches  and  penetrating  deep  into  the  mass  of  rubbish, 
nothing  but  stray  bricks  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  a  few  cunei- 
form tablets  and  terra-cotta  bowls  covered  with  Hebrew 
inscriptions  had  been  brought  to  light  when  they  finally 
quitted  this  inhospitable  region. 

We  cannot  close  this  sketch  of  Rassam's  archaeological 
work  in  Babylonia  without  referring  briefly  to  his  hasty  visit 
to  the  southern  districts  of  'Iraq,  which  lasted  from  Feb- 
ruary 24  to  March  13,  1879.^  The  news  of  De  Sarzec's 
secret  proceedings  at  Tello  had  spread  rapidly  among  the 
Arabs,  and  naturally  reached  the  ear  of  Rassam  immediately 
after  his  arrival  at  Baghdad,  in  the  beginning  of  February, 
1879.  A  faithful  and  jealous  guardian  of  British  interests, 
as  he  proved  to  be  during  his  long  career  in  the  East, 
he  decided  at  once  to  examine  those  remarkable  ruins  in 
person  with  a  view  of  occupying  them,  if  possible,  for  his 
own  government  somewhat  in  the  same  manner  as  he  pre- 
viously had  obtained  the  palace  of  Ashurbanapal  in  the 
northern  part  of  Qoyunjuk.  His  task  seemed  to  be  facili- 
tated by  the  circumstance  that  De  Sarzec  had  made  his  first 

^   Rassam,  /.  c,  pp.  398,  se^g. 

2   Rassam,  /.  r. ,  pp.  396,  sei^.,  409,  se^^. 

^   Rassam,  /.  c,  pp.  272,  se^^. 


278  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

tentative  excavations  at  Tello  "without  any  firman  from  the 
Porte."  No  sooner  had  he  therefore  established  his  work- 
men, under  native  overseers,  upon  the  ruins  of  Babylon  and 
Borsippa,  than  he  hurried  back  to  Baghdad,  descended  the 
Tigris  on  a  Turkish  steamer  as  far  as  K{id(t)  el-'Amara,  and 
sailed  through  the  Shatt  el-Hai  until  he  reached  the  object 
of  his  journey.  But  upon  landing  he  found,  to  his  conster- 
nation, that  Tello  was  not  within  the  sphere  of  British 
influence.  Shortlv  before  Sir  Henry  Lavard  had  obtained 
his  far-reaching  permit  for  simultaneous  excavations  in  the 
vilayets  of  Baghdad,  Aleppo,  and  Wan,  the  Ottoman  gov- 
ernment had  reduced  the  large  province  of  Baghdad  in  size 
by  creating  a  new  and  independent  pashalic  with  Basra  as 
capital,^  and  including  all  the  Turkish  territory  to  the  east 
and  south  of  the  Shatt  el-Hai."  For  the  time  being  Ras- 
sam  had,  therefore,  no  legal  right  to  make  any  excavations 
at  Tello.  But  having  gone  to  the  expense  of  a  voyage 
thither,  he  did  not  intend  to  turn  away  from  the  ruins  with- 
out having  convinced  himself  whether  "  it  would  be  worth 
while  to  ask  the  British  ambassador  at  Constantinople  to 
use  his  influence  with  the  Porte,  so  that  his  license  might 
be  extended  to  that  province."     Accordingly  he  engaged  a 

1  According  to  information  obtained  through  the  kindness  ot  Dr.  H.  Gies, 
first  dragoman  of  the  German  embassy  in  Constantinople,  the  military  admin- 
istration of  the  kolemcji  was  brought  to  an  end  in  'Iraq  in  1243  (Rurni^= 
1827  A.  D.).  Henceforth  Basra  was  ruled  by  the  Ottoman  government 
directly  through  mutesarrifs,  subject  to  the  orders  of  the  wall  of  Baghdad, 
or  through  independent  walls.  The  first  wall  of  Basra,  appointed  in  1875, 
was  Nasir  Pasha,  the  famous  shaikh  of  the  Muntefik(j).  Comp.  p.  218,  above. 
In  1884  the  province  of  Baghdad  was  again  reduced  in  size  by  the  creation  of 
the  vilayet  of  Mosul.  For  further  details,  see  Salname  of  Basra  of  the  year 
1309  (////r^  =  I  307  Rumi). 

•  The  line  of  demarcation  is  at  Kud(t)  el-Hai.  Only  generally  speaking 
the  Shatt  el-Hai  forms  the  natural  boundary  between  the  two  vilayets,  for  cer- 
tain portions  to  the  west  of  it,  as,  e.  g.,  the  ruins  of  Senkere,  and  other  smaller 
sites  as  far  north  as  Durraji,  belong  to  the  southern  vilayet  of  Basra. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY :  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      279 

guide  and  some  workmen,  and  walked  for  a  few  days  every 
morning  the  three  miles  from  the  embankment  of  the  canal 
to  the  site  of  Tello.  The  large  statue  in  dolerite  discov- 
ered and  reburied  by  the  French  explorer  had  been  exposed 
again  by  the  Arabs  after  De  Sarzec's  departure  in  the  pre- 
vious year.  It  naturally  attracted  Rassam's  attention  first. 
Having  cleared  it  entirely,  and  taken  a  squeeze  of  its  in- 
scription for  the  British  Museum,  he  opened  trenches  in 
different  parts  of  the  ruins.  Antiquities  were  often  found 
almost  directly  below  the  surface.  The  very  first  day  he 
came  upon  the  remains  of  a  temple  [?]  and  discovered  two 
inscribed  door  sockets  of  Gudea  at  its  entrance.  In  another 
place  he  unearthed  a  large  number  of  unbaked  clay  tablets, 
while  still  other  trenches  yielded  several  inscribed  mace- 
heads  in  red  granite,  and  many  of  those  mushroom-shaped 
clay  objects  {phalli)  with  the  names  of  Ur-Bau  and  Gudea 
upon  them,  in  which  the  ruins  of  Tello  abound.  If  Rassam 
had  continued  his  researches  one  day  longer  in  the  highest 
mound  and  driven  his  trenches  only  two  or  three  feet 
deeper,  he  could  not  have  missed  those  fine  statues  in  dole- 
rite  which  now  adorn  the  halls  of  the  Louvre.  But  kismet 
(fate)  —  to  quote  an  Oriental  phrase  —  was  this  time  de- 
cidedly against  him.  The  threatening  attitude  of  the  Arabs 
in  the  neighborhood,  the  inclemencv  of  the  weather,  and 
his  own  conscience,  which  told  him  that  he  was  "  carry- 
ing on  his  work  under  false  pretences,"  drove  him  away 
from  the  ruins  after  three  days'  successful  trial.  He  ex- 
pected to  return  later,  as  soon  as  he  had  managed  to  obtain 
the  necessary  permit  from  the  Porte.  But  De  Sarzec  was 
on  the  alert  and  quicker  of  action  than  Victor  Place.  While 
Rassam  was  meditating  and  planning  in  Babylonia,  the 
French  representative  took  decisive  steps  at  Paris  and  Con- 
stantinople which  secured  for  his  nation  the  much-coveted 
ruins  of  Tello,  and  through  them  those  priceless  treasures 
with  which  we  have  occupied  ourselves  in  the  previous 
chapter. 


280  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

GERMAN    EXCAVATIONS    AT    SURGHUL    AND    EL-HIBBA,    UNDER 
MORITZ    AND     KOLDEWEY 

Long  after  English  and  French  pioneers  had  established 
and  considerably  developed  the  science  of  Assyriology,  Ger- 
man scholars  began  to  remember  their  obligations  towards  a 
discipline  the  seed  of  which  was  sown  in  the  land  of  Grote- 
fend,  and  to  occupy  themselves  seriously  with  those  far- 
reaching  researches  which  later  were  to  find  their  strongest 
representation  at  their  own  universities.  The  first  Assyrian 
courses  delivered  in  Germany  were  given  privately^  at  Jena, 
where  Eberhard  Schrader,  appropriately  called  the  father  of 
German  Assyriology,  defended  its  principles  and  applied  its 
results  to  the  elucidation  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures. 
His  careful  and  critical  examination  of  all  that  had  been  ac- 
complished in  the  past,  and  his  successful  repelling  of  Alfred 
von  Gutschmid's  violent  attack  upon  the  very  foundations 
of  Assyrian  deciphering,  were  the  beginning  of  a  great  move- 
ment which  soon  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  Leipzig 
school  of  Assyriologists  under  Friedrich  Delitzsch,  and  to 
the  subsequent  consolidation  of  the  whole  science  by  him 
and  his  pupils.  The  old  loose  and  unsatisfactory  manner 
of  dealing  with  philological  problems,  to  a  large  extent  re- 
sponsible for  the  discredit  in  which  Assyriological  publi- 
cations were  held  in  Germany,  was  abandoned,  and  exact 
methods  and  a  technical  treatment  of  grammar  and  lexico- 
graphy became  the  order  of  the  day.  Theories  proclaimed 
and  accepted  as  facts  had  to  be  modified  or  radically  changed, 
and  the  interpretation  of  Assyrian  and  Sumerian  cuneiform 
inscriptions  was  placed  upon  a  new  basis. 

Problems  partly  or  entirely  unknown  to  the  older  school 

^  According  to  direct  information  received  from  Professor  Schrader,  of  Ber- 
lin, by  letter,  these  courses  were  given  in  the  summer  of  1873,  when  Fried- 
rich  Delitzsch  attended  his  lectures  on  Genesis  at  the  university,  while  at  the 
same  time  he  was  introduced  privately  by  him  into  the  study  of  Assyrian. 


DURING  19rn  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      281 

came  up  for  discussion,  and  representative  scholars  from 
other  nations  began  to  participate  in  a  thorough  ventilation 
of  the  interesting  subjects.  The  Sumerian  question  arose/ 
and  with  it  a  multitude  of  other  questions.  If  one  riddle 
was  solved  to-day,  another  more  difficult  presented  itself  to- 
morrow. Our  whole  conception  of  the  origin  and  develop- 
ment of  Assyrian  art  and  literature,  of  the  beginnings  of 
cuneiform  writing,  of  the  historical  position  and  influence 
of  the  primitive  inhabitants  of  Babylonia,  of  the  age  and 
character  of  Semitic  civilization  in  general,  and  of  many  im- 
portant details  closely  connected  therewith  seemed  to  be 
in  need  of  a  thorough  revision.  The  Assyriological  camp 
was  soon  split  into  factions,  often  fighting  with  bitterness 
and  passion  against  one  another. 

The  extraordinary  results  of  De  Sarzec's  epoch-making 
excavations  at  Tello  furnished  a  mass  of  new  material  which 
was  eagerly  studied  at  once  and  essentially  helped  to  extend 
our  horizon.  But  important  as  their  influence  proved  to 
be  on  the  gradual  solution  of  the  Sumerian  problem,  on 
the  clearing  of  our  views  on  Babylonian  art  and  civiliza- 
tion, and  on  the  many  other  questions  then  under  consid- 
eration, being  felt  alike  in  palaeography  and  philology, 
archaeology,  history,  and  ancient  geography,  their  greatest 
significance  lies,  perhaps,  in  the  fact  that  they  gave  rise  to 
the  methodical  exploration  of  the  Babylonian  ruins  and 
kindled  fresh  enthusiasm  for  the  organization  and  despatch 
of  new  expeditions.  The  statues  in  dolerite  and  the  inscribed 
bas-reliefs  and  cylinders  from  Tello  had  clearly  shown  that 
the  ruins  of  Southern  Babylonia  conceal  sculptured  remains 
of  fundamental  value,  and,  moreover,  that  the  period  to 
which  these  discoveries  lead  us  is  considerably  older  than 
that  which  had  been  reached  by  the  previous  Assyrian  ex- 

■^  Started  in  1874  by  Professor  J.  Halevy  of  Paris.  On  the  whole  subject 
comp.  Weissbach,  Die  Sumerische  Frage,  Leipzig,  1898,  and  Halevy,  Le 
Sumerism  et  P  histoire  Babyloniemie,  Paris,  1 90 1 . 


282  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

cavations.  Indeed,  the  marble  slabs  from  the  royal  palaces 
of  Dur-Sharruken,  Calah,  and  Nineveh  looked  very  recent 
when  compared  with  the  much-admired  monuments  of  La- 
gash.  All  indications  pointed  unmistakably  to  the  districts 
of  the  lower  Euphrates  and  Tigris  as  the  cradle  of  the  earli- 
est Babvlonian  civilization. 

The  first  attempt  at  imitating  De  Sarzec's  example  w^as 
made  in  Germany.  And  though  in  the  end  it  proved  to  be 
unproductive  of  great  tangible  results,  and  barren  of  those 
startling  discoveries  without  which  an  expedition  cannot  com- 
mand the  general  support  of  the  people,  it  was  important, 
and  a  sure  sign  of  the  growing  popularity  of  cuneiform 
studies  in  a  land  where  only  ten  years  previous  even  uni- 
versitv  professors  kept  aloof  from  the  Assyriological  science. 
Through  the  liberality  of  one  man,  L.  Simon,  who  in  more 
than  one  way  became  a  patron  of  archaeological  studies  in 
Germany,  the  Royal  Prussian  Museums  of  Berlin  were 
enabled  to  carry  on  brief  excavations  at  two  Babylonian 
ruins  during  the  early  part  of  1887.  These  researches  w^ere 
in  control  of  Dr.  Bernhard  Moritz  and  Dr.  Robert  Kol- 
dewey,  faithfully  assisted  in  the  practical  execution  of  their 
task  bv  Mr.  Ludwig  Meyer,  the  third  member  of  their  mis- 
sion. Leaving  Berlin  in  September,  1886,  they  reached  the 
scene  of  their  activity  in  the  beginning  of  the  following  year. 
The  mounds  which  were  selected  for  operation  are  called 
Surghul  and  El-Hibba,  distant  from  each  other  a  little  over 
six  miles,  and  representing  the  most  extensive  ruins  in  the 
large  triangle  formed  by  the  Euphrates,  the  Tigris,  and 
the  Shatt  el-Hai.  Situated  in  the  general  neighborhood  of 
Tello,  and  about  twenty  miles  to  the  northeast  of  Shatra, 
Surghul,  the  more  southern  of  the  two  sites,  rises  at  its 
highest  point  to  almost  fifty  feet  above  the  flat  alluvial  plain 
and  covers  an  area  of  about  192  acres,  while  the  somewhat 
low^er  mounds  of  El-Hibba  enclose  nearly  1400  acres.  The 
excavations  conducted  at  Surghul  lasted  from  January  4  to 


DURING  lO'ii  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      283 

February  26,  those  at  El-Hibba  from  March  29  to  May 
II,  1887.  But  in  addition  to  this  principal  work  in  South- 
ern Babylonia,  the  expedition  occupied  itself  with  the  pur- 
chase of  antiquities  and  the  examination  of  other  mounds 
in  'Iraq  el-'Arabi,  with  a  view  to  determine  some  of  the  more 
promising  sites  for  future  exploration. 

It  soon  became  evident  to  the  German  party  that  a  thor- 
ough examination  of  the  enormous  ruins  was  far  beyond 
the  time  and  means  at  their  disposal.  Under  these  circum- 
stances it  was  decided  to  confine  themselves  to  ascertaining 
the  general  contents  of  the  most  conspicuous  elevations 
by  means  of  long  trial  trenches.  When  remains  of  build- 
ings were  struck,  their  walls  were  followed  to  discover  the 
ground-plans,  while  the  interior  of  the  chambers  was  searched 
for  archaeological  objects.  Deep  wells  constructed  of  terra- 
cotta rings,  which  abound  in  both  ruins,  were,  as  a  rule, 
exposed  on  one  side  in  their  entire  length  in  order  to  be  pho- 
tographed before  they  were  opened.  The  results  obtained 
from  the  different  cuttings  in  the  two  sites  were  on  the  whole 
identical.  The  explorers  found  a  large  number  of  houses 
irregularly  built  of  unbaked  bricks,  and  intersected  by  long, 
narrow  streets,  which  rarely  were  more  than  three  feet  wide. 
These  edifices  formed  a  very  respectable  settlement  at  El- 
Hibba,  where  the  passageways  between  them  extended  fully 
two  miles  and  a  half.  As  to  size  and  arrangement  the 
buildings  varied  considerably,  some  containing  only  a  few 
rooms,  others  occupying  a  large  space,  —  in  one  instance 
a  house  covering  an  area  of  Ji^  feet  by  nearly  51  feet, 
and  containing  14  chambers  and  halls.  The  walls  of  most 
of  these  constructions  had  crumbled  so  much  that  gen- 
erally their  lower  parts,  often  only  their  foundations,  re- 
mained, which  could  be  traced  without  difficulty  after  an 
especially  heavv  dew  or  an  exceptional  shower.  Character- 
istic of  manv  of  these  houses  are  the  wells  mentioned  above, 
which,  according  to   Koldewey's  erroneous  view,  doubtless 


284  EXPLOIiATIONS   IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

abandoned  since,  were  intended  to  provide  the  dead  with 
fresh  water.  One  of  the  buildings  examined  had  no  less 
than  nine  such  wells,  another  eight,  four  of  which  were  in 
the  same  room,  which  was  only  2^}4  feet  by  about  8  feet. 

Wherever  the  mounds  were  cut,  they  seemed  to  contain 
nothing  but  remains  of  houses,  wells,  ashes,  bones,  vases, 
and  other  burial  remains.  Koldewey  therefore  arrived  at 
the  conclusion  that  both  ruins  must  be  regarded  as  "  fire 
necropoles,"  dating  back  to  a  period  "  probably  older  than 
that  of  the  earliest  civilizations ; "  that  the  houses  were 
not  dwelling-places  for  the  living,  but  tombs  for  the  dead, 
and  that  the  whole  mass  of  artificial  elevations  forms  the 
common  resting-place  for  human  bodies  more  or  less  con- 
sumed by  fire.^ 

There  were  two  kinds  of  burial,  "body-graves"  and 
"  ash-graves,"  thus  styled  by  Koldewey  in  order  to  indi- 
cate the  manner  in  which  corpses  were  treated  after  their 
cremation  ;  for  the  characteristic  feature  of  all  these  burials 
was  the  destruction  of  the  body  by  fire  previous  to  its  final 
interment,  though  in  later  times  the  complete  annihilation 
of  the  body  by  intense  heat  seems  to  have  given  way  to  a 
rather  superficial  burning,  which  in  part  degenerated  to  a 
mere  symbolic  act.  The  process  "  began  with  the  levelling 
of  the  place,  remains  of  previous  cremations,  if  such  had 
occurred,  being  pushed  aside.  The  body  was  then  wrapped 
in  reed-mats  (seldom  in  bituminous  material),  laid  on  the 
ground,  and  covered  all  over  with  rudely  formed  bricks,  or 
with  a  laver  of  soft  clay.  The  latter  was  quite  thin  in  the 
upper  parts,  but  thicker  near  the  ground,  so  that  as  little 
resistance  as  possible  was  offered  to  the  heat  attacking  the 
body  from  above,  while  at  the  same  time  the  covering  retained 

^  Comp.  Koldewev,  Die  althab'^lonischen  Graber  in  Surghul  und  El 
Hibba,m  Zeitschrift  fiir  Jssyriologie,  vol.  ii,  1887,  pp.  403-430.  To 
my  knowledge  no  more  complete  report  on  these  first  German  excavations  in 
Babylonia  has  yet  been  published. 


DUBING  I'Jiii   CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND   BABYLONIA      285 

the  solidity  necessary  to  prevent  too  early  a  collapse  under 
the  weight  of  the  fuel  heaped  upon  it."  In  order  to  con- 
centrate the  heat,  a  kind  of  low  oven  was  sometimes  erected, 
"but,  on  the  whole,  it  seems  as  though  in  the  oldest  period 
the  complete  incineration  under  an  open  fire  was  the  rule," 

Weapons,  utensils,  jewelry,  seal-cylinders,  toys,  food,  and 
drink  were  frequently  burned  with  the  body,  and  similar 
objects  were  generally  deposited  a  second  time  in  the  tomb 
itself,  where  the  charred  remains  found  their  final  resting- 
place.  Which  of  the  two  methods  of  burial  referred  to  above 
("  body-graves  "  or  "  ash-graves  ")  was  chosen,  depended 
essentially  on  the  intensity  of  the  cremation.  If  considerable 
portions  of  the  body  were  afterwards  found  to  be  untouched 
or  little  injured  by  the  fire,  the  remains  were  left  where  they 
had  been  exposed  to  the  heat ;  in  other  words,  the  funeral  pyre 
became  also  the  grave  of  the  dead  person  (so-called  "  body- 
grave  ").  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  cremation  was  success- 
ful, and  the  body  reduced  to  ashes  or  formless  fragments, 
the  remains  were  generally  gathered  and  placed  in  vases  or 
urns  of  different  sizes  and  shapes,  which,  however,  were  often 
too  small  for  their  intended  contents.  In  many  instances 
the  ashes  were  merely  collected  in  a  heap  and  covered  with 
a  kettle-formed  clay  vessel.  Burials  of  this  kind,  the  so- 
called  "  ash-graves,"  are  both  the  more  common  and  the  more 
ancient  at  Surghul  and  El-Hibba.  The  urns  of  ordinary 
persons  were  deposited  anywhere  in  the  gradually  increasing 
mound,  while  the  rich  families  had  special  houses  erected 
for  them,  which  were  laid  out  in  regular  streets.  It  must 
be  kept  in  mind,  however,  that  cremation  was  practicallv  the 
main  part  of  the  burial,  the  gathering  of  the  ashes  being  more 
a  non-essential  act  of  piety. 

Frequent  sandstorms  and  the  heavy  rains  of  the  South- 
Babylonian  fall  and  spring  must  often  have  ruined  whole 
sections  of  these  vast  cemeteries,  and  otherwise  greatly  inter- 
fered with  the  uniform  raising  of  the  whole  necropolis.    From 


286  EXrLOllATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

time  to  time,  therefore,  it  became  necessary  to  construct  large 
walls  and  buttresses  at  the  edges  of  the  principal  elevations 
in  support  of  the  light  mass  of  ashes  and  dust  easily  blown 
away;  to  level  the  ground  enclosed;  to  cover  it  with  a  thick 
layer  of  clay,  and  to  provide  the  houses  of  the  dead  with 
drains^  to  keep  the  mound  dry  and  the  tombs  intact.  The 
rectangular  platforms  thereby  obtained  were  reached  by 
means  of  narrow  staircases  erected  at  their  front  sides. 
Thus  while  most  of  these  artificial  terraces  owe  their  origin 
to  secondary  considerations,  the  large  solid  brick  structure 
of  El-Hibba  must  be  viewed  in  a  somewhat  different  light, 
contrarv  to  the  theory  of  Koldewey,  who  is  inclined  to  regard 
even  this  elevation  as  the  mere  substructure  of  an  especially 
important  tomb.  It  represents  a  circular  stage-tower  of  two 
stories,  resting  directly  on  the  natural  soil,  and  in  its  present 
ruinous  state  still  twenty-four  feet  high.  The  diameter  of 
the  lower  story,  rising  13  feet  above  the  plain,  is  410  feet, 
while  that  of  the  second  story  is  only  315  feet.  The 
entire  building  is  constructed  with  adobes,  and  the  second 
storv,  besides,  encased  with  baked  bricks  laid  in  bitumen. 
The  upper  surfaces  of  both  stories  are  paved  with  the  same 
material  to  protect  them  against  rain.  Water  was  carried 
off  by  a  canal  of  baked  bricks,  which  at  the  same  time 
served  as  a  buttress  for  the  lower  story.  Remains  of  a 
house  and  many  of  those  uninscribed  terra-cotta  nails  which, 

1  That  the  "wells"  mentioned  by  Koldewey  had  this  more  practical  pur- 
pose rather  than  to  provide  fresh  water  for  the  dead,  becomes  very  evident 
from  the  fact  that  they  are  frequently  constructed  of  jars  with  broken  bottoms 
joined  to  each  other,  that  the  terra-cotta  rings  of  which  they  are  usually  com- 
posed, like  the  top-pieces  covering  their  mouths,  are  often  perforated,  and  — 
apart  from  manv  other  considerations  —  that  in  no  case  the  numerous  similar 
wells  examined  by  me  at  Nuffar  descended  to  the  water  level.  Real  wells, 
intended  to  hold  fresh  water,  doubdess  existed  in  these  two  ancient  cemeteries, 
but  thev  are  always  constructed  of  baked  bricks  (arranged  in  herring-bone 
fashion  in  pre-Sargonic  times),  and  have  a  much  larger  diameter  than  any  of 
these  terra-cotta  pipes  described  by  Koldewev. 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      287 

in  large  masses,  were  found  at  the  base  of  the  stage-tower 
at  Nippur/  were  observed  on  the  upper  platform.  With 
the  exception  of  its  circular  form,  which,  however,  cannot 
be  regarded  as  a  serious  objection  to  my  theory,  the  solid 
brick  structure  of  El-Hibba  presents  all  the  characteristic 
features  of  a  ziggurrat,  with  which  I  regard  it  as  identical,^ 
the  more  so  because  I  have  recently  found  evidence  that, 
like  the  Egyptian  pyramid,  the  Babylonian  stage-tower  (or 
step-pyramid)  without  doubt  was  viewed  in  the  light  of  a 
sepulchral  mound  erected  in  honor  of  a  god,^  and  because  it 
seems  impossible  to  believe  that  a  deeply  religious  people, 
as  the  early  inhabitants  of  Shumer  doubtless  were,  should 
have  cremated  and  buried  their  dead  without  appropriate 
religious  ceremonies,  and  should  have  left  this  vast  necro- 
polis without  a  temple.  It  is  certainlv  no  accident  that  the 
only  remains  of  pictorial  representations  in  stone  discov- 
ered in  the  course  of  the  German  excavations  (part  of  a 
wing,  fragments  of  a  stool,  and  a  pair  of  clasped  hands) 
were  unearthed  at  the  foot  of  this  structure,  and  near  the 
second  large  elevation  of  El-Hibba — the  only  two  places 
which  can  be  taken  into  consideration  as  the  probable 
sites  for  such  a  sanctuary. 

^   Evidently  they  had  fallen  from  a  building  once  crowning  its  summit. 

-  I  am  also  inclined  to  see  a  last  reminiscence  of  the  Babylonian  ziggurrat 
in  the  meftul,  the  characteristic  watch-tower  and  defensive  bulwark  of  the 
present  Ma'dan  tribes  of  Central  Babvlonia.  Notwithstanding  the  etymology 
of  the  Arabic  word,  a  meftul  \i  seldom  round  (against  Sachau,  Am  Euphrat 
und  Tigris,  Leipzig,  1900,  p.  43,  with  picture  on  p.  45),  but  like  the 
ziggurrat,  generally  rectangular,  and  from  fort\'  to  eighty  feet  high.  Almost 
without  exception  these  towers  are  built  of  clay  laid  up  en  masse.  Throughout 
my  wanderings  in  Babylonia  I  met  with  only  one  fine  (rectangular )  specimen 
constructed  entirely  of  kiln-bi(rnt  bricks.  It  is  situated  on  a  branch  of  the 
Shatt  el-Kar,  a  few  miles  to  the  west  from  the  ruins  of  Abu  Hatab  and 
Fara,  which  I  recently  recommended  for  excavations  to  the  German  Orient 
Society. 

*  Comp.  my  later  remarks  in  connection  with  the  results  of  the  excavations 
at  NufFar,  Fourth  Campaign,  Temple  Mound,  section  3. 
21 


288  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

There  can  he  no  douht  that  most  of  these  tombs  belong 
to  the  true  Babylonian  age.  The  entire  absence  of  the  slip- 
per-shaped cofhn,  which  forms  one  of  the  most  characteristic 
features  of  the  Parthian  and  Sassanian  periods,  enables  us 
to  speak  on  this  point  more  positively.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  thin  terra-cotta  cups,  in  form  very  similar  to  a  female 
breast,  which  Koldewey  mentions,^  betray  late  foreign  influ- 
ence. They  cannot  be  older  than  about  300  b.  c,  and  are 
probably  somewhat  younger,  as  they  occur  exclusively  in  the 
upper  strata  of  Nuffar.  It  is  more  difficult  to  determine 
the  time  when  these  cemeteries  came  first  into  use.  How- 
ever, the  scattered  fragments  of  statues  and  stone  vessels  of 
the  same  type  and  material  as  those  discovered  at  Tello  and 
Nuffar  (near  the  platform  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin),  the 
inscribed  bricks  and  cones  referred  to  bv  various  explorers, 
the  characteristic  situation  of  the  two  mounds  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  first-named  ruin,  the  peculiar  form  and  small 
height  of  the  ziggurrat,  the  pre-Sargonic  existence  of  which 
was  recently  proved  bv  the  present  writer,"  certain  forms  of 
clay  vessels  which  are  regularly  found  only  in  the  lowest 
strata  of  Nuffar,  and  various  other  reasons  ^  derived  also  from 
the  study  of  the  inscriptions  and  bas-reliefs  of  Tello  go  far 
to  show  that  the  pyres  of  Surghul  and  El-Hibba  already 
blazed  when  the  Sumerian  race  was  still  in  the  possession  of 
the  country. 

^  Koldewev,  /.  c,  p.  418. 

^   Comp.  p.   232,  above,  note  2, 

^  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Koldewey  did  not  give  a  description  of  the  forms 
and  sizes  of  the  various  bricks,  which,  as  I  have  pointed  out  in  my  "  Old 
Babylonian  Inscriptions  chieflv  from  Nippur,"  part  ii,  p.  45,  are  a  very 
important  factor  in  determining  pre-Sargonic  structures.  The  rudely  formed 
bricks  mentioned  by  him  fcomp.  p.  284  abovej  point  to  the  earliest  kind  of 
bricks  known  from  Nuffar  and  Tello. 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       289 

AMERICAN   EXCAVATIONS   AT   NUFFAR   UNDER  THE   AUSPICES   OF 
THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   PENNSYLVANIA. 

The  importance  of  the  study  of  Semitic  languages  and  lit- 
erature was  early  recognized  in  the  United  States.  Hebrew, 
as  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament,  stood  naturally  in  the 
centre  of  general  interest,  as  everywhere  in  Europe  ;  and  the 
numerous  theological  seminaries  of  the  country  and  those 
colleges  which  maintained  close  vital  relations  with  them 
were  its  first  and  principal  nurseries.  But  in  the  course  of 
time  a  gradual  though  very  visible  change  took  place  with 
regard  to  the  position  of  the  Semitic  languages  in  the  curric- 
ulum of  all  the  prominent  American  colleges.  The  German 
idea  of  a  university  gained  ground  in  the  new  world,  finding 
its  enthusiastic  advocates  among  the  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  students  who  had  come  into  personal  contact  with 
the  great  scientific  leaders  in  Europe,  and  who  for  a  while 
had  felt  the  powerful  spell  of  the  new  life  which  emanated 
from  the  class  rooms  and  seminaries  of  the  German  univer- 
sities. Post-graduate  departments  were  organized,  independ- 
ent chairs  of  Semitic  languages  were  established,  and  even 
archaeological  museums  were  founded  and  maintained  by 
private  contributions.  Salaries  in  some  cases  could  not  be 
given  to  the  pioneers  in  this  new  movement.  Thev  stood 
up' for  a  cause  in  which  they  themselves  fully  believed,  but 
the  value  of  which  had  to  be  demonstrated  before  endow- 
ments could  be  expected  from  the  liberal-minded  public. 
They  represented  the  coming  generation,  which  scarcely  now 
realizes  the  difficulties  and  obstacles  that  had  to  be  overcome 
by  a  few  self-sacrificing  men  of  science,  before  the  present 
era  was  successfully  inaugurated. 

The  study  of  the  cuneiform  languages,  especially  of  Assy- 
rian, rapidly  became  popular  at  the  American  universities. 
The  romantic  story  of  the  discovery  and  excavation  of 
Nineveh  so  graphically  told  by  Layard,  and  the  immediate 


290  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

bearing  of  his  magnificent  results  upon  the  interpretation  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  upon  the  history  of  art  and  human 
civilization  in  general,  appealed  at  once  to  the  religious  sen- 
timent and  to  the  general  intelligence  of  the  people.  The 
American  Oriental  Society  and  the  Society  of  Biblical  Lit- 
erature and  Exegesis  became  the  first  scientific  exponents 
of  the  growing  interest  in  the  lands  of  Ashurbanapal  and 
Nebuchadrezzar.  The  spirit  of  Edward  Robinson,  who 
more  than  sixty  years  before  had  conducted  his  fundamen- 
tal researches  of  the  physical,  historical,  and  topographical 
geography  of  Syria  and  Palestine,  was  awakened  anew,  and 
the  question  of  participating  in  the  methodical  exploration 
of  the  Babylonian  ruins,  to  which  De  Sarzec's  extraordinary 
achievements  at  Tello  had  forcibly  directed  the  public  atten- 
tion, began  seriously  to  occupy  the  minds  of  American 
scholars.  "  England  and  France  have  done  a  noble  work 
in  Assyria  and  Babylonia.  It  is  time  for  America  to  do  her 
part.  Let  us  send  out  an  American  expedition,"  —  was  the 
kev-note  struck  at  a  meeting  of  the  Oriental  Society  which 
was  held  at  New  Haven  in  the  spring  of  1884.  This 
suggestion  was  taken  up  at  once,  and  a  committee  was  con- 
stituted to  raise  the  necessary  funds  for  a  preliminary  ex- 
pedition of  exploration,  with  Dr.  W.  H.  Ward  of  "The 
Independent"  as  director.  The  plan  was  sooner  realized 
than  could  have  been  anticipated.  A  single  individual,  Miss 
Catherine  Lorillard  Wolfe  of  New  York,  gave  the  $5000 
required  for  this  purpose,  the  Archaeological  Institute  of 
America  took  control  of  the  undertaking,  and  on-  Sep- 
tember 6  of  the  same  year  Dr.  Ward  was  on  his  way  to 
the  East.  His  party  consisted  of  Dr.  J.  R.  S.  Sterrett,  now 
professor  of  Greek  in  Amherst  College,  Mr.  J.  H.  Haynes, 
then  an  instructor  in  Robert  College,  Constantinople,  who 
had  served  as  photographer  on  the  Assos  expedition,  and 
Daniel  Z.  Noorian,  an  intelligent  Armenian,  as  interpreter. 
Before  the  four  men  could  enter  upon  their  proper  task, 


DURING  19™  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      291 

Dr.  Sterrett  fell  seriously  ill  on  the  way,  so  that  he  was 
obliged  to  remain  at  Baghdad.  The  others  left  the  city  of 
HarQn  ar-Rashid  on  January  12,  and  devoted  nearly  eight 
weeks  to  the  exploration  of  the  Babylonian  ruins  to  the 
south  of  it.  After  a  hurried  visit  to  Abu  Habba,  Babylon, 
and  El-Birs,  they  struck  for  the  interior,  and  on  the  whole 
followed  in  the  wake  of  Frazer  and  Loftus.  Though,  like 
the  former,  at  times  suffering  severely  from  lack  of  proper 
food  and  water  and  from  exposure  to  cold  and  rain,  they 
executed  their  commission  of  a  general  survey  of  the  coun- 
try in  a  satisfactory  manner,  as  far  as  this  was  possible  within 
the  brief  period  which  they  had  set  for  themselves.  They 
examined  most  of  the  principal  sites  of  'Iraq  el-' Arab! 
down  to  El-Hibba  and  Surghul,  Tello,  and  Muqayyar,  re- 
corded numerous  angular  bearings  from  the  various  mounds, 
took  photographs  and  impressions  of  antiquities  whenever 
an  opportunity  presented  itself,^  and  worked  diligently  to 
gather  all  such  information  as  might  prove  useful  in  con- 
nection with  future  American  excavations  in  the  plains  of 
Shumer  and  Akkad.  Upon  his  return,  in  June,  1885,  Dr. 
Ward  submitted  a  concise  "  Report  on  the  Wolfe  Expe- 
dition to  Babylonia"  to  the  Institute  which  had  sent  him, 
and  continued  in  many  other  ways  to  promote  the  archaeo- 
logical interests  of  his  country."     But  it  seemed  as  if  the 

1  We  thus  owe  our  only  knowledge  of  one  of  the  earliest  Babylonian  in- 
scriptions to  a  photograph  taken  by  Dr.  Ward  at  Samawa  on  February  17, 
1885,  and  soon  afterwards  published  by  him  in  the  "Proceedings  of  the 
American  Oriental  Society,"  October,  1885.  This  legend  was  engraved 
upon  a  stone,  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  A.  Blau,  a  German,  who  had  for- 
merly served  as  a  surgeon  in  the  Turkish  army,  but  was  then  engaged  in 
trade  at  Samawa.  All  traces  of  the  important  monument  have  since  been 
lost. 

-  His  "  Report  "  appeared  in  the  '<  Papers  of  the  Archaeological  Institute 
of  America,"  Boston,  1886.  Comp.  '' The  Wolfe  Expedition,"  by  the 
same  author,  in  "Journal  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Literature  and  Exegesis," 
June  to  December,  1885,  pp.  56-60,  and  his  article  "On  Recent  Explo- 


292  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

public  at  large  was  not  yet  prepared  to  contribute  money 
for  excavations  in  an  unsafe  foreign  country,  however  closely 
connected  with  the  Bible.  Moreover,  with  the  despatch  of 
this  preliminary  expedition,  the  original  committee  of  the 
Oriental  Society  very  evidently  regarded  the  work  for  which 
it  was  called  together  as  finished,  and  accordingly  passed 
out  of  existence. 

Among  the  Semitic  scholars  who  in  1884  had  met  at 
New  Haven  to  discuss  the  feasibility  of  independent  Amer- 
ican explorations  in  different  sections  of  Western  Asia,  Rev. 
Dr.  John  P.  Peters,  Professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  Episcopal 
Divinity  School  of  Philadelphia,  had  been  especially  active 
in  promoting  that  first  expedition  and  in  raising  the  funds 
required  for  it.  He  and  others  had  quietly  cherished 
the  hope  that  the  lady  who  so  generously  defrayed  all  the 
expenses  of  Dr.  Ward's  exploring  tour  would  also  take  a 
leading  part  in  future  archaeological  enterprises  of  the  coun- 
try. But  for  some  reason  or  other  their  well-founded  expec- 
tations were  doomed  to  disappointment.^  If,  therefore,  the 
former  comprehensive  scheme  of  starting  American  excava- 
tions in  one  or  more  of  the  recommended  Babylonian  sites 
was  ever  to  be  realized,  it  became  necessary  above  all  things 
to  arouse  greater  Interest  among  the  religious  and  educated 
classes  of  the  people  by  public  lectures  on  Semitic  and 
archaeological  topics,  and  to  make  especial  efforts  to  win  the 
confidence  and  cooperation  of  public-spirited  men  of  influ- 
ence and  wealth,  on  whose  moral  and  financial  support  the 

radons  in  Babylon"  in  "Johns  Hopkins  University  Circulars,"  No.  49, 
Mav,  1886.  A  large  portion  of  Dr.  Ward's  abridged  diary  was  published 
by  Dr.  Peters  in  "  Nippur,"  vol.  I,  appendix  F,  pp.  318-375. 

^  This  circumstance  is  mentioned  especially,  because  as  late  as  1900  Mr. 
Heuzev,  director  of  the  Oriental  Department  of  the  Louvre  and  editor  of  the 
monuments  from  Tello,  assigns  the  origin  of  the  NufFar  expedition  of  the  Uni- 
versitv  of  Pennsylvania  to  a  legacy  left  by  Miss  Wolfe  to  that  institudon 
for  excavations  in  Babylonia.  Comp.  De  Sarzec  and  Heuzey,  Une  yUle 
Roya/e  Chaldeenne,  Paris,  1900,  pp.  31  seq. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      293 

practicability  of  the  intended  undertaking  chiefly  depended  ; 
for  direct  assistance  from  the  United  States  government 
was  entirely  out  of  the  question.  Such  courses  were  given 
in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  winter  of  1886— 
1887. 

But  where  could  a  sufficient  number  of  enlightened  men 
and  women  be  found  who  had  the  desire  and  courage  to 
engage  in  such  a  costly  and  somewhat  adventurous  enterprise 
as  a  Babylonian  expedition  at  first  naturally  must  be,  as  long 
as  there  were  more  urgent  appeals  from  churches  and 
schools,  universities  and  museums,  hospitals  and  other  char- 
itable institutions,  which  needed  the  constant  support  of 
their  patrons,  and  while  there  were  plenty  of  scientific  enter- 
prises and  experiments  of  a  more  general  interest  and  of 
more  practical  value  with  regard  to  their  ultimate  outcome 
constantly  carried  on  immediately  before  the  eyes  of  the  pub- 
lic at  home  ?  Indeed,  the  prospect  for  excavations  in  the  re- 
mote and  lawless  districts  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris 
looked  anything  but  bright  and  encouraging..  It  was  finally 
Dr.  Peters'  patient  work  and  energy  which  secured  the  neces^ 
sary  funds  for  the  first  ambitious  expedition  to  Babylonia 
through  liberal  friends  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
where  a  short  while  before  (1886)  he  had  been  appointed 
Professor  of  Hebrew,  while  the  present  writer  was  called  to 
the  chair  of  Assyrian. 

The  university  was  then  ably  managed  by  the  late  pro- 
vost. Dr.  William  Pepper,  a  man  of  rare  talents,  exceptional 
working  power,  and  great  personal  magnetism,  under  whom 
it  entered  upon  that  new  policy  of  rapid  expansion  and  sci- 
entific consolidation  which  under  his  no  less  energetic  and 
self-sacrificing  successor.  Dr.  C.  C.  Harrison,  brought  it 
soon  to  the  front  of  the  great  American  institutions  of  learn- 
ing. The  remarkable  external  growth  of  which  it  could 
boast,  and  the  spirit  of  progress  fostered  in  its  lecture  halls 
were,  to  a  certain  degree,  indicative  also  of  the  high  appre- 


294  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

ciation  of  scholarship  and  original  investigation  on  the  part 
of  the  educated  classes  of  the  city  in  which  it  is  situated. 
It  will  therefore  always  remain  a  credit  to    Philadelphia  that 
within  its  confines  a  small  but  representative  group  of  gen- 
tlemen was    ready   to    listen   to   Dr.    Peters'    propositions, 
and  enthusiastically  responded  to  a  call  from   Mr.  E.  W. 
Clark,  a  prominent  banker  and  the  first  active  supporter  of 
the  new  scheme,  to  start  a  movement  in  exploring  ancient 
sites  under  the  auspices  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
which  is  almost  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  archae- 
ological   research.     The    immediate    fruit    of    this    unique 
demonstration  of  private  citizens  was  the  equipment   and 
maintenance  of  a  great   Babylonian  expedition,  which   has 
continued    to    the  present    day    at    a    cost     of    more   than 
1 1 00,000,  and  which  was  soon  followed  by  the  organization 
or  subvention  of  similar  enterprises  in  Egypt,  Asia  Minor, 
North  and  Central  America,  Italy  and  Greece.      It  has  well 
been  stated  that   no  city  in  the  United  States  has  shown  an 
interest  in  archaeology  at  all  comparable  with  that  displayed 
by  Philadelphia  within  the  last  fifteen  years. 

The  history  and  results  of  this  Babylonian  expedition  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  will  be  set  forth  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages.  Its  work,  which  centred  in  the  methodical 
exploration  of  one  of  the  earliest  Babylonian  cities,  the 
ruins  of  Nuffar,  the  Biblical  Calneh  (Gen.  10  :  10),  was  no 
continuous  one.  Certain  intervals  were  required  for  the 
general  welfare  and  temporary  rest  of  its  members,  for 
replenishing  the  exhausted  stores  of  the  camp,  and,  above 
all,  for  preparing,  studying,  and,  in  a  general  way,  digesting 
the  enormous  mass  of  excavated  material,  in  order  to  secure 
by  preliminary  reports  the  necessary  means  for  an  early 
resumption  of  the  labors  in  the  field.  For  as  to  the  wealth 
of  its  scientific  results,  this  Philadelphia  expedition  takes 
equal  rank  with  the  best  sent  out  from  England  and  France, 
while   it   eclipses  them  all  with   regard  to  the  number  and 


DURING  lOrn  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      295 

character  of  the  inscribed  tablets  recovered.  Four  distinct 
campaigns  were  conducted  before  those  priceless  treasures 
of  literature  and  art  which  are  now  deposited  in  the  two 
great  museums  on  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Schuylkill  could 
be  extracted  from  their  ancient  hiding  places. 

Each  had  its  own  problem  and  history,  its  special  difficul- 
ties and  disappointments,  but  also  its  characteristic  and  con- 
spicuous results.  The  work  of  the  first  expedition  {i88S-8g) 
was  on  the  whole  tentative,  and  gave  us  a  clear  conception 
of  the  grandeur  of  the  task  to  be  accomplished.  It  included 
an  accurate  survey  of  the  whole  ruins,  the  beginning  of  sys- 
tematic excavations  at  the  temple  of  Bel,  the  discovery  of  a 
Parthian  palace,  and  the  unearthing  of  more  than  two  thou- 
sand cuneiform  inscriptions  representing  the  principal  periods 
of  Babylonian  history,  and  including  numerous  tablets  of  the 
ancient  temple  library.  The  second  {iS8g-go)  continued  in 
the  line  of  research  mapped  out  by  the  first,  explored  the 
upper  strata  of  the  temple,  and  by  means  of  a  few  deep  trial 
trenches  produced  evidence  that  a  considerable  number  of 
very  ancient  monuments  still  existed  in  the  lower  parts 
of  the  sacred  enclosure.  It  resumed  the  excavation  of 
the  Parthian  palace,  discovered  important  Cassite  archives, 
and  acquired  about  eight  thousand  tablets  of  the  second  and 
third  pre-Christian  millenniums.  The  third  [i8gj-g6)  also 
directed  its  chief  attention  to  the  temple  mound,  but  at  the 
same  time  made  a  successful  search  for  inscribed  monu- 
ments in  other  sections  of  the  ruins,  gathering  no  less  than 
twenty-one  thousand  cuneiform  inscriptions  largely  frag- 
mentary. It  removed  the  later  additions  to  the  stage-tower; 
revealed  the  existence  of  several  platforms  and  other  impor- 
tant architectural  remains  in  the  centre  of  the  large  mound, 
thereby  enabling  us  to  fix  the  age  of  its  different  strata  with 
great  accuracy  ;  it  excavated  three  sections  of  the  temple 
court  down  to  the  water  level,  and  discovered  the  first  well- 
preserved  brick  arch  of  pre-Sargonic  times  (about  4000  b.  c), 


296  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

with  numerous  other  antiquities,  including  the  large  torso  of 
an  inscribed  statue  in  dolerite  of  the  period  of  Gudea,  and 
over  five  hundred  vase  fragments  of  the  earliest  rulers  of  the 
country.  The  fourth  expedition  (i8g8-igoo)  was  the  most 
successful  of  all.  It  explored  the  Parthian  palace  completely, 
and  examined  more  than  one  thousand  burials  in  various 
parts  of  the  ruins.  It  proved  that,  contrary  to  former  asser- 
tions, the  upper  strata  of  the  temple  complex  did  not  belong 
to  the  Babvlonian  period  proper,  but  represented  a  huge  Par- 
thian fortress  Iving  on  the  top  of  it.  It  definitely  located 
the  famous  temple  library  of  Nippur,  from  which  thousands 
of  tablets  had  been  previously  obtained,  and  in  addition 
to  many  other  inscribed  objects,  like  the  votive  table  of 
Naram-Sin,  a  large  dolerite  vase  of  Gudea,  etc.,  it  excavated 
about  twenty-three  thousand  tablets  and  fragments,  mostly  of 
a  literary  character.  Above  all  it  endeavored  to  determine 
the  extent  of  the  pre-Sargonic  settlement,  discovered  a  very 
large  ancient  wall  below  the  level  of  the  desert  in  the  south- 
western half  of  the  ruins,  exposed  nearly  the  whole  eastern 
city  wall,  ascertaining  the  different  periods  of  its  construction 
and  uncovering  the  earliest  remains  of  its  principal  gate 
deeply  hidden  in  the  soil  of  the  desert.  It  traced  the  ancient 
southeast  wall  of  the  inner  temple  enclosure,  found  its  origi- 
nal chief  entrance  in  a  tolerably  good  state  of  preservation, 
ascertained  the  precise  character  of  Bel's  famous  sanctuary, 
and  demonstrated  bv  indisputable  facts  that  the  ziggurrat, 
the  characteristic  part  of  every  prominent  Babylonian  tem- 
ple, does  not  go  back  to  Ur-Gur  of  Ur,  about  1700  b.  c, 
but  was  a  creation  of  the  earliest  Sumerian  population. 

It  is  evident  from  a  mere  glance  at  this  summary  of  the 
total  results  obtained  that  they  cannot  be  fully  compre- 
hended if  treated  exclusivelv  under  the  head  of  each  single 
campaign.  On  the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  a 
certain  feeling  of  justice  towards  the  various  members  of 
the  expedition,  who  w'orked  under  different  conditions  and 


DURING  IQTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      297 

served  at  different  times,  render  a  separate  treatment  of  the 
origin  and  history  of  every  campaign  almost  imperative. 
We  therefore  propose  first  to  relate  the  history  and  pro- 
gress of  the  tour  campaigns  in  their  natural  order,  and  after- 
wards to  sketch  their  principal  results — due  as  much  to  the 
extraordinary  efforts  of  the  subscribers  and  the  careful  watch- 
fulness and  directions  of  the  committee  at  home  as  to  the 
faithful  services  and  self-denying  spirit  of  those  in  the  field 
—  in  their  mutual  relation  to  each  other,  and  chiefly  from  a 
topographical  point  of  view. 

A.     ORIGIN    AND    HISTORY    OF    THE    EXPEDITION. 

Firsi  Campaign,  i8SS-8g.  The  meeting  at  which  Dr. 
Peters  submitted  his  plans  to  the  public  was  held  at  the 
house  of  Provost  Pepper  on  November  30,  1887.  About 
thirty  persons  were  present,  including  Dr.  Ward,  the  pre- 
vious leader  of  the  Wolfe  Expedition,  and  Professor  Hil- 
precht,  as  the  official  representative  of  Assyriology  in  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  Both  had  been  invited  by 
the  chairman  to  express  their  respective  views  with  regard 
to  the  contemplated  undertaking.  In  the  course  of  the 
discussion  it  became  more  and  more  apparent  that  the  en- 
thusiastic originator  of  the  new  scheme  and  the  present 
writer  differed  essentially  from  each  other  on  fundamental 
questions.  On  the  basis  of  Dr.  Ward's  recommendation,  the 
former  declared  in  favor  of  a  large  promising  site,  like  Anbar, 
Nuffar,  El-Birs,  etc.,  as  most  suitable  for  the  Philadelphia 
excavations.  He  proposed  that  the  staff  of  the  expedi- 
tion should  consist  of  four  persons,  a  director,  a  well-known 
Assyriologist,  formerly  connected  with  the  British  Museum, 
and  the  photographer  and  the  interpreter  of  the  Wolfe  Expe- 
dition ;  and  he  estimated  the  total  expense  for  a  campaign 
of  three  consecutive  years,  as  previously  stated  by  him,  at 
115,000.     The  present  writer,  on  the  other  side,  pointed  out 


298  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

that  while  he  fully  agreed  with  Dr.  Peters  as  to  the  impor- 
tance of  either  of  the  proposed  mounds^  for  archaeological 
research,  especially  of  Nuffar,  so  frequently  and  prominently 
mentioned  in  the  earliest  cuneiform  inscriptions,  he  never- 
theless felt  it  his  duty  to  affirm  that  none  of  these  extensive 
mounds  could  be  excavated  in  the  least  adequately  within 
the  period  stated,  and  that,  moreover,  according  to  his  own 
calculations,  even  a  small  expedition  of  only  four  members 
and  a  corresponding  number  of  servants  and  workmen 
would  necessarily  cost  more  in  the  first  year  than  the  whole 
sum  required  for  three  years."  He  furthermore  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  national  honor  and  the 
scientific  character  of  this  first  great  American  enterprise 
in  Babvlonia  would  seem  to  require  the  addition  of  an 
American  Assyriologist  and  architect,  and,  if  possible,  even 
of  a  surveyor  and  a  naturalist,  to  the  proposed  staff  of  the 

^  Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  against  Anbar  (Persian,  "  maga- 
zine, granary")  as  a  Babylonian  site,  I  still  hold  with  Dr.  Ward,  on  the 
ground  of  my  own  personal  examination  of  the  immense  ruins  and  of  the 
topography  of  that  whole  neighborhood,  that  long  before  the  foundation  of 
Peroz  Shapur  a  Babylonian  city  of  considerable  importance  must  have  ex- 
isted there.  Traces  of  it  would  doubtless  be  revealed  in  the  lower  strata  of 
its  principal  mounds.  The  mere  facts  that  here  the  Euphrates  entered  Baby- 
lonia proper,  that  here  the  first  great  canal  —  on  the  protection  of  which  the 
fertility  and  prosperity  of  an  important  section  of  the  country  depended  — 
branches  off,  and  that  here  a  military  station  is  required  to  complete  the 
northern  fortification  line  of  the  empire,  —  indicated  hv  Tell  Mohammed  be- 
tween the  Tigris  and  the  Diyala  (covering  the  remains  of  a  palace  ot  Ham- 
murabi, comp.  p.  158,  above),  and  'Aqarquf  between  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates  (the  ancient  Dur-Kurigalzu,  comp.  pp.  38,  sei^.,  above),  —  forces 
us  to  look  for  the  ruins  of  a  Babylonian  city  on  the  site  of  Anbar,  which  re- 
presents the  most  important  point  on  the  whole  northern  boundary. 

-  At  Dr.  Pepper's  request,  I  handed  my  own  views  to  him  in  writing  as 
to  the  composition,  task,  expenses,  etc.,  of  a  Babylonian  expedition  on  the 
morning  following  this  meeting.  This  paper  was  returned  to  the  writer 
shortly  before  Dr.  Pepper's  untimely  death.  The  probable  expenses  of  such 
an  expedition  with  a  staff  of  five  or  six  persons  was  estimated  tor  the  first  year 
at  $19,200. 


DURING  lOrii   CENTURY :   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      299 

expedition.  If,  however,  in  view  of  a  very  natural  desire 
on  the  part  of  the  director  and  his  financial  supporters,  the 
principal  stress  was  to  be  laid  on  the  rapid  acquisition  of 
important  museum  objects  and  inscribed  tablets  rather  than 
on  the  methodical  and  complete  examination  of  an  entire 
large  ruin,  it  would  be  by  far  wiser  to  select  from  among 
the  different  sites  visited  by  Dr.  Ward  one  which  was 
somewhat  smaller  in  size  and  considerably  less  super- 
imposed with  the  remains  and  rubbish  of  the  post-Babylo- 
nian period  than  any  of  the  ruins  submitted  for  considera- 
tion.^ The  results  showed  only  too  plainly  that  the  view 
maintained  by  the  present  writer  was  correct,  and  that  his 
objections,  raised  for  the  sole  purpose  of  preventing  unplea- 
sant complications  and  later  disappointments  with  regard 
to  "  the  white  elephant,"  as  the  expedition  was  soon  to  be 
styled,  were  based  upon  a  careful  discrimination  between 
uncertain   hopes  and  sober  facts. 

The  same  evening  "  The  Babylonian  Exploration  Fund  " 
was  called  into  existence,  about  half  of  the  sum  requested 
(1 1 5,000)  subscribed,  and  an  expedition  with  Dr.  Peters  as 
director  recommended.  On  March  17,  1888,  the  organi- 
zation of  the  new  corporation  was  completed  by  the  elec- 
tion of  Provost  Pepper  as  president,  Mr.  E.  W.  Clark  as 
treasurer,    and    Professor    Hilprecht    as    secretary.'       Dr. 

1  I  had  in  mind  a  ruin  of  the  type  of  Fara  (recently  recommended  by  me 
to  the  German  Orient  Society  for  similar  consideration,  comp.  Mittheilu?i- 
gen,  no.  10,  p.  2),  where  the  pre-Sargonic  stratum  reaches  to  the  very  sur- 
face of  the  mound. 

-  The  whole  Executive  Committee  consisted  of  fifteen  members,  including 
the  three  officers  mentioned  and  the  director  of  the  expedition.  The  other 
members  were  Messrs.  C.  H.  Clark  (chairman  of  the  Publication  Commit- 
tee), W.  W.  Frazier,  C.  C.  Harrison  (the  present  provost),  Joseph  D. 
Potts  (t),  Maxwell  Sommerville,  H.  Clay  Trumbull,  Talcott  Williams, 
Richard  Wood,  Stuart  Wood,  of  Philadelphia  ;  Professor  Langley,  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institute,  Washington  ;  and  Professor  Marquand,  of  Princeton 
University. 


300  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Peters  was  confirmed  as  director,  but  the  general  plan  pre- 
viously outlined  by  him  was  somewhat  modified  in  accord- 
ance with  the  writer's  suggestions.  Upon  the  director's 
recommendation,  Dr.  Robert  Francis  Harper,  then  in- 
structor in  Yale  University,  was  appointed  Assyriologist,^ 
Mr.  Perez  Hastings  Field,  of  New  York,  architect  and  sur- 
veyor, Mr.  Haynes  photographer  and  business  manager, 
and  Mr.  Noorian  interpreter  and  director  of  the  workmen, 
while  Mr,  J.  D.  Prince,  just  graduating  from  Columbia 
College  and  offering  to  accompany  the  expedition  at  his 
own  expense,  was  attached  as  the  director's  secretary.  But 
having  fallen  seriouslv  ill  on  the  way  down  the  Euphrates 
valley,  he  left  the  expedition  at  Baghdad,  and  returned  to 
America  bv  way  of  India  and  China. 

On  April  4,  I  received  an  urgent  note  from  Provost 
Pepper  requesting  me  to  see  him  at  once  and  stating  that  it 
was  his  especial  desire  that  I  should  serve  on   this  expedi- 

^  Peters,  /.  c,  p.  9,  adds  :  "  At  the  time  it  was  understood  that  Profes- 
sor Hilprecht's  health  was  too  delicate  to  permit  him  to  serve  in  the  field. 
Later  the  physicians  decided  that  he  could  go."  Where  and  how  this  "it 
was  understood  ' '  originated,  I  do  not  know.  There  is  an  apparent  misunder- 
standing on  the  part  of  Dr.  Peters  concerning  the  whole  matter  which  I  do  not 
care  to  discuss  within  the  pages  of  this  book.  Yet  nevertheless  I  desire  to  state 
briefly  as  a  matter  of  fact,  i .  That  I  never  had  been  asked  to  go  to  Babylonia 
before  April  4,  1888,  2.  That  I  never  consulted  any  physician  with  regard 
to  my  accompanying  that  first  Babylonian  expedition.  3.  That  consequently 
I  never  received  medical  advice  or  *'  decision  "  from  any  physician  in  reply  to 
such  a  question.  Dr.  Peters's  two  volumes  ("Nippur,"  New  York,  1897) 
unfortunatelv  contain  many  other  erroneous  statements  (comp.  Ward's  review 
in  "The  Independent,"  July  29,  1897,  p.  18,  and  Harper's  in  "The 
Biblical  World,"  October,  1897).  In  order  not  to  appear  through  my 
silence  to  approve  of  them  in  this  first  coherent  sketch  of  the  history  of  the 
whole  expedition,  I  am  unfortunately  frequently  obliged  to  take  notice  of 
them.  Personal  attacks,  however,  have  been  ignored  entirely  ;  other  mis- 
statements, as  a  rule,  have  been  changed  quietly  ;  only  fundamental  differ- 
ences with  regard  to  important  technical  and  scientific  questions  have  been 
stated  expressly  in  the  interest  of  the  cause  itself 


DURING   19111  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      301 

tion  as  the  University  of  Pennsylvania's  Assyriologist,  all 
the  necessary  expenses  to  be  paid  by  himself  and  Rev.  Dr. 
H.  Clay  Trumbull,  editor  of  "  The  Sunday  School  Times." 
I  consented  to  go  without  a  salary,  as  Harper  and  Field 
had  done  before.  In  the  course  of  the  summer  the  mem- 
bers of  the  expedition  left  at  intervals  for  the  East,  finally 
meeting  at  Aleppo  on  December  lo.  Peters  and  Prince  had 
spent  three  months  in  Constantinople  to  obtain  a  firman 
for  successive  excavations  at  El-Birs  and  NufFar  ;  Harper, 
Field,  and  Haynes  had  visited  the  Hittite  districts  of  Sen- 
jirli,  Mar'ash  and  Jerabis  (Carchemish) ;  ^  while  the  present 
writer  had  worked  on  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  the 
Nahr  el-Kelb  and  Wadi  Berisa,^  at  the  same  time  searching 
the  whole  Lebanon  region  for  new  material.  After  an 
uneventful  trip  down  "  the  great  river  "  ^  and  a  fortnight's 
stay  at  Baghdad,  largely  devoted  to  the  examination  and 
purchase   of  antiquities,'*  the   party   proceeded    by   way   of 

^  Comp.  Harper  in  "The  Old  and  New  Testament  Student,"  vol.  viii 
(1889),  pp.  183,  se^.  ("A  Visit  to  Zinjirii")  and  vol.  ix  (1889),  pp. 
308,  se^.  ("A  Visit  to  Carchemish"). 

^  Comp.  Hilprecht  in  "The  Sunday  School  Times,"  vol.  xxxi.  (1889), 
p.  163  ("The  Mouth  of  the  Nahr  el-Kelb"),  pp.  547,  se^.  ("The 
Inscriptions  of  Nebuchadrezzar  in  Wadi  Brissa"),  and  vol.  xxxii  (1890), 
pp.  147,  se^.  ("  The  Shaykh  of  Zeta")  ;  also  Die  Inschriften  Nebukad- 
?iezar^s  irn  Wadi  Brissa,  in  Luthardt's  Zeitschrift  fiir  kirchliche  Wissensckaft 
utid  kirchliches  Lebe/i,  vol.  ix  (1889),  pp.  491,  seqq. 

*  Comp.  Harper  in  "The  Old  and  New^  Testament  Student,"  vol.  x 
(1890),  pp.  55,  seqq.,  118,  seq.,  367,  seq.  ("  Down  the  Euphrates  Val- 
ley," i-iii)  ;  and  /.  c.,  vol.  xiv  (1892),  pp.  160,  seqq.,  213,  seqq., 
and  vol.  xv  (1892),  pp.  12,  seqq.  ("  The  Expedition  of  the  Babylonian 
Exploration  Fund,"  A-C). 

*  In  the  course  of  the  first  expedition  there  were  purchased  through  different 
members  of  the  staff  five  distinct  collections  of  Babylonian  antiquities,  contain- 
ing about  I  800  specimens  (tablets,  seals,  jewelry),  namely.  Colls.  Kh(abaza)i, 
Kh2,  Sh(emtob),  Mrs.  H.  V.  H(ilprecht),  D.  J.  P(rince),  besides  a  col- 
lection of  Cappadocian  tablets  and  other  antiquities,  and  a  set  of  plaster  casts 
of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  monuments    from  the    British    Museum.     Apart 


302  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Hilla  to  NufFar,  the  scene  of  its  future  activity.  For  after 
a  visit  to  the  high-towering  mound  of  El-Birs  and  the 
adjoining  site  of  Tell  Ibrahim  el-Khalil,  which  together  con- 
stitute the  remains  of  ancient  Borsippa,  it  had  been  decided 
unanimously  not  to  commence  operations  here,  but  to  move 
further  on  to  the  second  place  granted  by  the  firman,  which 
practically  represented  an  entirely  fresh  site  only  superfi- 
cially scratched  before  by  Layard/ 

The  next  military  station  from  Nuffar  is  Diwaniye,  situ- 
ated on  both  sides  of  the  Euphrates  and  (according  to  the 
season  and  the  extent  of  the  inundations)  about  six  to  nine 
hours  to  the  southwest  of  it.  At  the  time  of  our  first 
campaign  it  was  a  miserable  and  fast  decreasing  town  con- 
sisting chiefly  of  mud  houses,  and  governed  by  a  qaimma- 
qam^  under  whose  immediate  jurisdiction  we  were  to  be. 
But  since  the  water  supply  of  the  lower  Euphrates  has  been 
regulated  through  the  construction  of  the  Hindiye  dam 
above  Babylon,  it  has  rapidly  changed  its  aspect  and  be- 
come a  neat  and  flourishing  town.  At  the  expense  of  Hilla 
it  has  been  raised  to  the  seat  of  a  mutesarrif  and  received 
a  considerable  increase  of  soldiers,  including  even  artillery, 
in  order  to  check  the  predatory  incursions  of  the  roaming 
Bedouins  of  the  desert,  and  to  control  the  refractory  'Afej 
tribes  around  Nufi^ar,  which  until  recently  acknowledged 
only  a   nominal   allegiance   to    the   Ottoman    government, 

from  Mrs.  Hilprecht's  and  Mr.  Prince's  contributions,  which  did  not  pass 
through  the  treasurer's  hands,  Messrs.  C.  H.  and  E.  W.  Clark,  W.  W. 
Frazier,  C.  C.  Harrison,  Wm.  Pepper,  and  Stuart  Wood  spent  ^6500  extra 
for  the  purchase  of  these  collections,  including  a  number  of  Palmyrene  busts 
obtained  by  Dr.  Peters  in  the  following  year,  and  the  valuable  plaster  repro- 
ductions of  the  ruins  of  NufFar,  which  were  afterwards  prepared  under  Field's 
supervision  in  Paris.  As  to  the  Khabaza  and  Shemtob  collections,  comp. 
Harper  in  Hebraica,  vol.  v,  pp.  74,  seqq.  ;  vol.  vi,  pp.  225,  seq.  (vol.  viii, 
pp.   103,  seq.^. 

^  Comp.  pp.   159,  seqq..,  above. 


22 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      303 

regarding  themselves  as  perfectly  safe  in  the  midst  of  their 
swamps  and  mud  castles,  the  so-called  meftuls}  Peters, 
Harper,  and  Bedry  Bey,  our  Turkish  commissioner,  took 
this  circuitous  route  by  way  of  Diwaniye,  to  pay  their 
respects  to  the  local  governor  there  and  to  make  the  neces- 
sary arrangements  for  the  prompt  despatch  and  receipt  of 
our  mail. 

The  rest  of  us,  accompanied  by  thirty-two  trained  work- 
men from  Jumjuma  and  another  village  near  El-Birs,  a 
crowd  of  women  and  children  attached  to  them,  and  a  large 
number  of  animals  carrying  our  whole  outfit,  provisions, 
and  the  implements  for  excavations,  struck  directly  for 
Nuffar.  The  frequent  rumors  which  we  had  heard  at  Bagh- 
dad and  Hilla  concerning  the  unsettled  and  unsafe  condi- 
tion of  this  section  of  the  country,  inhabited  as  it  was  said 
to  be  by  the  most  unruly  and  turbulent  tribes  of  the  whole 
vilayet,  were  in  an  entire  accord  with  Layard's  reports,"^  and 
only  too  soon  to  be  confirmed  by  our  own  experience.  The 
*Afej  and  the  powerful  Shammar,  who  sometimes  descend  as 
far  down  as  the  Shatt  el-Hai,  were  fighting  for  the  pasture 
lands,  driving  each  other's  camels  and  sheep  away,  and  two 
of  the  principal  subdivisions  of  the  'Afej  had  a  blood-feud 
with  each  other.  On  the  second  day  of  our  march,  while 
temporarily  separated  from  our  caravan,  we  were  suddenly 
surprised  by  a  ghazu  (razzia)  and  with  difficulty  escaped 
the  hands  of  the  marauding  Arabs.  The  nearer  we  came 
to  the  goal  of  our  journey,  the  more  disturbed  was  the 
population.  Finally  on  the  third  morning  Bint  el-Amir, 
majestically  towering  above  the  wide  stretched  mounds  of 
Nuffar,  rose  clear  on  the  horizon.  More  than  2000  years 
ago  the  huge  terraces  and  walls  of  the  most  renowned  Baby- 

^  Comp.  p.  287,  note  2,  above,  and  the  illust.  facing  p.  349,  below. 
"^  Comp.    Layard,  "Nineveh   and   Babylon,"    London,  1853,   p.    565: 
'♦The  most  wild  and  ignorant  Arabs  that  can  be  found  in  this  part  of  Asia. " 


304  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LAXDS 

Ionian  sanctuary  had  crumbled  to  a  termless  mass.  But 
even  in  their  utter  desolation  they  still  seemed  to  testify  to 
the  lofty  aspirations  of  a  bygone  race,  and  to  reecho  the 
ancient  hymn^  once  chanted  in  their  shadow:  — 

"  O  great  mountain  of  Bel,  Im^arsag, 
Whose  summit  rivals  the  heavens, 
Whose  foundations  are  laid  in  the  bright  abysmal  sea. 

Resting  in  the  land  as  a  mighty  steer. 
Whose  horns  are  gleaming  like  the  radiant  sun. 
As  the  stars  of  heaven  are  filled  with  lustre." 

Even  at  a  distance  I  began  to  realize  that  not  twenty, 
not  fifty  years  would  suffice  to  excavate  this  important  site 
thoroughly.  What  would  our  committee  at  home  have 
said  at  the  sight  of  this  enormous  ruin,  resembling  more  a 
picturesque  mountain  range  than  the  last  impressive  remains 
of  human  constructions  !  But  there  was  not  much  time  for 
these  and  similar  reflections  ;  our  attention  was  fully  ab- 
sorbed by  the  exciting  scenes  around  us.  The  progress  of 
the  motley  crowd  along  the  edge  of  the  cheerless  swamps 
was  slow  enough.  The  marshv  ground  which  we  had  to 
traverse  was  cut  up  by  numerous  old  canals,  and  offered 
endless  difficulties  to  the  advance  of  our  stumbling  beasts. 
Besides,  the  whole  neighborhood  was  inflamed  by  war.  Ges- 
ticulating groups  of  armed  men  watched  our  approach  with 
fear  and  suspicion.  Whenever  we  passed  a  village,  the 
signal  of  alarm  was  given.  A  piece  of  black  cloth  fluttered 
in  an  instant  from  the  meftu/,  dogs  began  to  bark  savagely, 
shepherds  ran  their  flocks  into  shelter,  and  the  cries  of  ter- 
rified women  and  children  sounded  shrill  over  the  flat  and 
treeless  plain.  Greeted  by  the  wild  dance  and  the  rhyth- 
mical yells  of  some  fifty  'Afej  warriors,  who  had  followed 
our  movements  from  a  peak  of  the  weather-torn  ruins,  we 
took  possession  of  the  inheritance  of  Bel. 

Immediately  after  our  arrival  we  began  to  pitch  our  tents 
'   Comp.  iv  R.,  27,  no.  2,   15-24. 


DUIiING  rjrii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BAliYLONIA       305 

on  the  highest  point  of  the  southwestern  half  of  the  ruins, 
where  we  could  enjov  an  unlimited  view  over  the  swamps 
and  the  desert,  and  which  at  the  same  time  seemed  best 
protected    against    malaria   and    possible   attacks    from    the 


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**     jj!*  ^«»J^- 


Plan  uf  the  Ruin^  ul   Nuii.u 

/.  Ziggurrat  and  Temple  of  Bel,  buried  under  a  huge  Partfiian  fortress.  II.  North-east  city 
ivall.  III.  Great  north-east  [pre-Sargonic)  city  gate.  IV.  Temple  library,  cohered  by 
extensi-zie  ruins  of  a  later  period.  V.  Dry  bed  of  an  ancient  canal  [Shalt  en- Nil).  VI. 
Pie-Sargonic  ivall,  buried  under  sixty  feet  of  rubbish  ivith  archives  of  later  periods.  VII. 
Small  Parthian  palace,  resting  on  Cassite  archi-ves.  VIII.  Business  house  of  Murasku  Sons, 
ivith  more  ancient  ruins  beloiv. 


Arabs.  With  the  aid  of  Berdi,  shaikh  of  the  Warish  (a  sub- 
division of  the  Hamza),who  was  ready  to  assist  us,  a  num- 
ber of  native  huts,  so-called  sarifas.,  made  of  bunches  of 
reed  arched  together  and  covered  with  palm-leaf  mats,  were 
placed  in  a  square  around  us.  71iey  served  for  stables, 
store-rooms,  servants'  quarters,  workshop,  dining-room, 
kitchen  and  other  purposes,  and  also  protected  us  against 


306  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

the  sand  storms  and  the  thievish  incHnations  of  the  children 
of  the  desert.  Before  this  primitive  camp  was  established, 
Field  began  surveying  the  mounds,  as  a  preliminary  map 
had  to  be  submitted  to  the  vvali  ot  Baghdad,  in  order  to 
secure  his  formal  approval  of  our  excavations.  In  the  mean 
while  the  director  and  the  two  Assyriologists  used  every 
spare  moment  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  topography 
of  the  ruins  and  to  search  for  indications  on  the  surface 
which  might  enable  them  to  ascertain  the  probable  charac- 
ter and  contents  of  the  more  prominent  single  mounds.^ 

In  connection  with  repeated  walks  over  the  whole  field 
I  prepared  a  rough  sketch  of  the  principal  ruins  for  my  own 
use,  gathered  numerous  pieces  of  bricks,  stone  and  pottery, 
and  immediately  reached  the  following  general  conclusions  : 
I.  Certain  portions  of  the  ruins  are  remarkably  free  from 
blue  and  green  enamelled  pottery,  always  characteristic  of 
late  settlements  on  Babylonian  sites,  and  show  no  trace  of 
an  extensive  use  of  glass  on  the  part  of  its  inhabitants. 
As  the  latter  is  never  mentioned  with  certainty  in  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions  (then  at  our  disposal),  and  as  the 
Assyrian  excavations  at  Khorsabad,  Nebi  Yiinus,  and  Nim- 
riad  had  yielded  but  a  few  glass  vessels,  these  parts  of  an- 
cient Nippur  must  have  been  destroyed  and  abandoned  at 
a  comparatively  early  date.  2.  In  accordance  with  such 
personal  observations  and  inferences  and  in  view  of  Lay- 
ard's  discoveries  in  the  upper  strata  of  Nuffar,^  it  became 
evident  that  the  southwest  half  of  the  ruins,  which  on  an 
average  is  also  considerably  higher  than  the  corresponding 
other  one,  was  much  longer  inhabited  and  to  a  larger  ex- 
tent used  as  a  graveyard  in  the  post-Christian  period  than 
the  northeast  section.  3.  As  Bint  el-Amir,  the  most  con- 
spicuous mound  of  the  whole  ruins,  no   doubt  represents 

^  Comp.  the  brief  description  of  the  ruins  on  pp.  160,  se^.,  above,  under 
Layard. 

2   Comp.  pp.    161,  seqq.,  above. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      307 

the  ancient  ziggurral  or  stage-tower,  as  generally  asserted, 
it  follows  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  the  temple  of  Bel,  of 
which  it  formed  part,  must  also  have  been  situated  in  the 
northeast  section,  and  therefore  is  hidden  under  the  mounds 
immediately  adjoining  it  towards  the  east.  4.  The  ques- 
tion arose,  what  buildings  are  covered  by  the  two  remain- 
ing groups  of  mounds  to  the  northwest  and  southeast  of 
the  temple  complex.  The  important  role  which  from  the 
earliest  times  the  cult  of  Bel  must  have  played  in  the  life 
and  history  of  the  Babylonian  people,  as  testified  by  the 
enormous  mass  of  ruins  and  numerous  passages  in  the 
cuneiform  literature,  pointed  unmistakably  to  the  employ- 
ment of  a  large  number  of  priests  and  temple  officers,  and 
to  the  existence  of  a  flourishing  school  and  a  well  equippecf 
temple  library  in  the  ancient  city  of  Nippur.  Which  of 
the  two  mounds  under  consideration  most  probably  repre 
sented  the  residences  of  the  priests  with  their  administra- 
tive offices  and  educational  quarters  ?  5.  The  large  open 
court  to  the  northwest  of  the  temple,  enclosed  as  it  was  on 
two  sides  by  the  visible  remains  of  ancient  walls,  on  the 
third  by  the  ziggurrat,  and  on  the  fourth  by  the  Shatt  en- 
Nil,  suggested  at  once  that  the  undetermined  northwest 
group  flanking  this  court  served  more  practical  purpose? 
and  contained  out-houses,  stables,  store-rooms,  magazines, 
sheds,  servants'  quarters,  etc.,  which  were  not  required  in 
the  immediate  neighborhood  and  in  front  of  the  temple. 
6.  It  was  therefore  extremely  probable  that  the  houses 
of  the  priests,  their  offices,  school,  and  library  must  be 
looked  for  in  the  large  triangular  southeast  mound  (IV), 
separated  by  a  branch  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil  from  the  temple 
proper.  Situated  on  the  bank  of  two  canals,  in  close  prox- 
imity to  the  sanctuary  of  Bel,  open  on  all  sides  to  the  fresh 
breezes  in  the  summer,  and  yet  well  protected  against  the 
rough  north  winds,  whjch  swept  down  from  the  snow-capped 
mountains  of  Persia  during  the  winter,  this  section  of  the 


308  EXPLORATIOXS  IX    BIBLE  LAXDS 

ruins  seemed  to  fulfil  all  the  conditions  required,  and  from 
the  very  beginning  was  therefore  pointed  out  by  the  pre- 
sent writer  as  the  most  important  mound  for  our  work  next 
to  the  temple  ruin  proper. 

It  will  always  remain  a  source  of  deep  regret  that  Dr. 
Peters  did  not  rely  more  upon  the  judgment  and  scien- 
tific advice  of  his  Assvriologists  in  deciding  strictly  technical 
questions,  but  that  in  his  anxious  but  useless  efforts  to 
arrange  all  the  essential  details  of  this  first  expedition  in 
person,  he  allowed  himself  frequently  to  be  led  by  accidents 
and  secondary  considerations  rather  than  by  a  clearly  defi- 
nite plan  of  methodical  operations.  The  first  trenches  were 
opened  on  February  6  by  the  thirty-two  workmen  hired 
in  Hilla.  The  circumstance  that  some  of  the  Arabs,  while 
gathering  bricks  for  certain  constructions  in  our  camp,  had 
accidentally  struck  a  large  tomb  in  a  small  gully  near  us 
influenced  the  director  to  begin  the  excavations  at  this  point 
(VII),  which  soon  led  to  the  discovery  of  a  construction  of 
columns  made  of  baked  bricks  and  of  such  a  mass  of  slip- 
per-shaped coffins,  funeral  urns,  bones,  ashes,  and  other 
remains  of  the  dead,  that  at  first  we  were  inclined  to  regard 
the  whole  southwestern  half  of  Nuffar  as  a  vast  graveyard 
or  a  regular  "  citv  of  the  dead,"  similar  to  those  explored 
by  Moritz  and  Koldewey  at  Surghul  and  Kl-Hibba.  The 
next  point  attacked  by  him  was  an  extremely  insignificant 
out-of-the-wav  mound  at  the  northwestern  end  of  the  Shatt 
en-Nil,  selected  chieflv  because  it  was  small  enough  to  be 
excavated  completelv  within  a  few  weeks.  Several  days  later, 
when  a  sufficient  number  of  workmen  had  been  obtained 
from  the  neighboring  tribes,  the  systematic  exploration  of 
Bint  el-Amir  was  undertaken  in  accordance  with  a  plan  pre- 
pared bv  the  Assvriologists  and  the  architect.  The  first  task 
which  we  had  set  for  ourselves  was  to  determine  the  corners 
and  walls  of  the  stage-tower,  and  to  search  for  barrel  cylinders 
and  other  documents  which  might  have  been  deposited  in 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      309 

this  ancient  structure  by  the  different  monarchs  who  restored 
it.  If  ever  they  existed,  —  and  certain  discoveries  made  later 
in  the  rubbish  around  its  base  proved  that  they  actually  did, 
—  these  building  records  must  have  been  destroyed  at  the 
time  of  the  Parthian  invasion,  when  the  whole  temple 
complex  was  remodelled  for  military  purposes. 

Apart  from  a  stray  cuneiform  tablet  of  the  period  of  Sar- 
gon  I.  —  the  first  of  its  kind  ever  discovered,  —  three  small 
fragments  of  inscribed  stone  picked  up  by  the  Arabs,  a  few 
Hebrew  bowls,  and  a  number  of  bricks  bearing  short  legends 
of  the  kings  Ur-Gur,  Bur-Sin  I.,  Ur-Ninib,  and  Ishme-Dagan, 
all  of  the  third  pre-Christian  millennium,  no  inscribed  doc- 
uments had  been  unearthed  during  the  first  ten  days  of  our 
stay  at  Nuffar.  No  wonder  that  Dr.  Peters,  who  began  to 
realize  that  his  funds  of  1 15,000  were  nearly  exhausted,  grew 
uneasy  as  to  the  tangible  results  of  the  expedition,  the  future 
of  which  depended  largely  upon  quick  and  important  discov- 
eries. I  seized  this  opportunity  to  submit  once  more  for  his 
consideration  my  views,  given  above,  concerning  the  topog- 
raphy of  the  northeast  half  ot  the  ruins,  pointing  out  that  in 
all  probability  tablets  would  be  found  in  that  large  isolated 
hill,  which  I  believed  to  contain  the  residences  of  the  priests 
and  the  temple  library  (IV),  and  requested  him  to  let  me 
have  about  twenty  men  for  a  few  days  to  furnish  the  in- 
scribed material  so  eagerly  sought  after.  This  was  a  some- 
what daring  proposition,  which  scarcely  would  have  been 
made  with  this  self-imposed  restriction  of  time  had  I  not 
been  convinced  of  the  general  correctness  of  my  theory. 
After  some  hesitation  the  director  was  generous  enough  to 
place  two  gangs  of  workmen  at  my  disposal  for  a  whole 
week  in  order  to  enable  me  to  furnish  the  necessary  proof 
for  my  subjective  conviction.  On  February  1 1  two  trenches 
were  opened  at  the  western  edge  of  IV  on  a  level  with  the 
present  bed  of  the  ancient  canal.  Before  noon  the  first  six 
cuneiform  tablets  were  in  our  possession,  and  at  the  close  of 


310  EXriOliATIOXS  IN  BIBLE  LAXDS 

the  same  dav  more  than  twenty  tablets  and  fragments  had 
been  recovered.  I'hus  far  the  beginning  was  very  encour- 
aging;, and  far  surpassed  my  boldest  expectations.  But  it 
remained  to  be  seen  whether  we  had  struck  only  one  of 
those  small  nests  of  clay  tablets  as  they  occasionally  occur 
in  all  Babylonian  ruins,  or  whether  they  would  continue  to 
come  forth  in  the  same  manner  during  the  following  weeks 
and  even  increase  gradually  in  number.  At  the  end  of 
February  several  hundred  tablets  and  fragments  had  been 
obtained  from  the  same  source,  and  six  weeks  later,  when 
our  first  campaign  was  brought  to  a  sudden  end,  mound  IV 
had  vielded  more  than  two  thousand  cuneiform  inscriptions 
from  its  seeminglv  inexhaustible  mines.  For  the  greater 
part  they  were  unbaked,  broken,  and  otherwise  damaged. 
With  regard  to  their  age,  two  periods  could  be  clearly  dis- 
tinguished. The  large  mass  was  written  in  old  Babylonian 
characters  not  later  than  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon  (about 
aooo  B.  c),  but  less  than  one  hundred  tablets  gathered  in  the 
upper  strata  were  so-called  neo-Baby Ionian  contracts  gener- 
ally well  preserved  and  dated  in  the  reigns  of  Ashurbanapal, 
Nabopolassar,  Nebuchadrezzar,  Evil-Merodach  (2  Kgs.  25  : 
27  ;  Jer.  52  :  31 ),  Nabonidos,  Cyrus,  Cambyses,  Darius,  and 
Xerxes.  Three  of  them  were  of  unusual  historical  interest. 
Being  dated  in  the  second  and  fourth  vear  of  Ashuretililani, 
"king  of  Assvria,"  thev  proved  conclusivelv  that  Nabopo- 
lassar's  rebellion  against  the  Assyrian  supremacy  (626  b.  c.) 
was  originallv  confined  to  the  capital  and  its  immediate 
environment,  and  that,  contrary  to  the  prevalent  view,  long 
after  Babylon  itself  had  regained  and  maintained  its  inde- 
pendence, important  cities  and  whole  districts  ot  the  South- 
ern empire  still  paid  homage  to  Ashurbanapal's  successor 
on  the  throne  of  Assyria.' 

But  the  earlier   inscriptions,  though  as  a  rule  very  frag- 
mentarv,  were  of  even  greater  significance.    None  of  them 

^   Comp.  Hilprecht,  in  Zeitschrift  fur  Assyiologie,  vol.  iv,  pp.  \b\,  seqq. 


DURING  lOrii  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       311 

was  evidently  found  in  silUy  except  ten  large  tablets  in  a 
most  excellent  state  of  preservation  taken  from  a  kiln,  where 
they  had  been  in  the  process  of  baking  when  one  of  the 
terrible  catastrophes  by  which  the  city  was  repeatedly  vis- 
ited overtook  ancient  Nippur.  They  consisted  of  busi- 
ness documents  referring  to  the  registry  of  tithes  and  to 
the  administration  of  the  temple  property,  and  of  tablets 
of  a  decided  literary  character,  comprising  some  very  fine 
svllabaries  and  lists  of  synonyms,  letters,  mathematical, 
astronomical,  medical  and  religious  texts,  besides  a  few  speci- 
mens of  drawing  and  a  considerable  number  of  mostly  round 
tablets  which  must  be  classified  as  school  exercises.  Those 
which  were  dated  bore  the  names  of  Hammurabi,  Samsu- 
iluna,  Abeshum,  Ammisatana,  and  Ammisadugga,  As  about 
four  fifths  of  all  the  tablets  were  literary,  there  could  no  longer 
be  any  doubt  that  we  were  not  far  from  the  famous  temple 
library,  unless  indeed  we  already  were  working  in  its  very 
ruins.  In  order  to  arrive  at  more  definite  results,  it  would 
have  been  necessary  to  continue  the  two  large  trenches  which 
I  had  started,  through  the  centre  to  the  eastern  edge  of  the 
mound.  In  the  course  of  the  second  half  of  March  five  extra 
gangs  were  put  on  "the  tablet  hill,"  as  it  was  henceforth 
stvled,  to  carry  out  this  plan.  But  time  and  money  were 
soon  lacking,  and  circumstances  arose  which  forced  us  to 
evacuate  Nulfar  before  many  weeks  were  over.  Otherwise 
we  could  not  have  failed  to  discover,  in  1889,  those  tablet- 
filled  rooms  which  were  unearthed  eleven  years  later,  when 
the  present  writer  personally  was  held  responsible  for  the 
preparation  of  the  plans  and  the  scientific  management  of 
the  expedition. 

The  work  at  the  temple  complex,  where  finally  more  than 
one  hundred  men  were  employed,  proceeded  but  slowly, 
owing  to  the  enormous  amount  of  rubbish  accumulated  here 
and  to  the  tenacity  of  the  unbaked  bricks  v*'hich  had  to  be 
cut  through.     Small  and  graceful  terra-cotta  cones  similar  to 


312  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

those  discovered  by  Loftus  at  Warka,^  but  generally  broken, 
were  excavated  in  large  number  along  the  base  of  the  north- 
west wall  of  the  ziggurrat.  Evidently  they  had  fallen  from 
the  top  of  the  tower,  and  once  belonged  to  a  shrine  contem- 
poraneous with  the  inscribed  bricks  of  Ashurbanapal,  the 
last  known  restorer  of  the  temple  of  Bel,  near  whose  ma- 
terial they  were  lying.  The  remains  of  the  lowest  story  of 
the  huge  building  began  to  rise  graduallv  out  of  the  midst 
of  the  encumbering  ruins.  But  they  offered  problems  so 
complicated  in  themselves  and  with  regard  to  other  construc- 
tions discovered  all  around  the  ziggurrat  at  a  much  higher 
level,  that  it  was  well-nigh  impossible  to  form  a  satisfactory 
idea  of  the  character  and  extent  of  the  temple,  before  the 
whole  neighborhood  had  been  subjected  to  a  critical  exami- 
nation. For  very  apparent  reasons  there  were  only  a  few 
and  very  late  tombs  unearthed  in  this  part  of  the  city,  while 
again  they  occurred  more  frequently  in  the  lower  mounds 
to  the  southwest  of  the  temple.  Among  the  various  an- 
tiquities which  came  from  the  trenches  of  the  sanctuary  itself 
may  be  mentioned  especially  about  a  dozen  vase  fragments 
inscribed  with  verv  archaic  characters,  two  of  them  exhib- 
iting the  name  of  Lugalzaggisi,  an  otherwise  unknown  king 
of  Erech  whose  precise  period  could  then  not  be  deter- 
mined;  a  well  preserved  brick  stamp  of  Naram-Sin  (about 
3750  B.  c),  the  first  document  of  this  half-mythical  mon- 
arch which  reached  the  shores  of  Europe ;  a  fine  marble 
tablet  containing  a  list  of  garments  presented  to  the  temple; 
and  a  door-socket  of  the  Cassite  ruler  Kurigalzu. 

In  the  course  of  time  our  workmen  had  been  gradually 
increased  to  about  250,  so  that  experimental  trenches  could 
also  be  cut  in  the  extreme  western  and  southern  wings  of 
the  ruins.  A  number  of  contract  tablets  of  the  time  of  the 
Chaldean  and  Persian  dynasties  were  excavated  in  the  upper 
strata  of  the  last  mentioned  section.     The  fragment  of  a 

Comp.  pp.   148,  seq.,  above. 


DUEING   lOrii   CENTURY:   ASHYIUA   AND   BABYLONIA      313 

barrel  cylinder  of  Sargon,  king  of  Assyria,  which  came  from 
the  same  neighborhood,  indicated  that  a  large  public  building 
must  have  occupied  this  site  previously,  a  supposition  sub- 
sequently strengthened  by  the  discovery  of  two  more  frag- 
ments which  belonged  to  duplicates  of  the  same  cylinder. 
Stray  cuneiform  tablets  and  seal  cylinders;  a  considerable 
number  of  terra-cotta  figurines,  mostly  bearded  gods  with 
weapons  and  other  instruments  in  their  hands,  or  naked  god- 
desses holding  their  breasts  or  suckling  a  babe ;  and  a  few  clay 
reliefs,  among  which  an  exquisitely  modelled  lioness  excited 
our  admiration,  were  discovered  in  various  other  parts  ot  the 
ruins.  They  belonged  to  the  Babylonian  period,  in  which 
naturally  our  interest  centred.  But,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
most  of  the  trenches  yielded  antiquities  which  illustrated  the 
life  and  customs  of  the  early  post-Christian  inhabitants  of 
the  country  rather  than  those  of  the  ancient  Babylonians. 
Especially  in  the  ruins  of  the  Parthian  building,  with  its  in- 
teresting brick  columns,  which  in  the  first  week  the  Arabs 
had  disclosed  to  the  east  of  our  camp,  we  uncovered  hun- 
dreds of  slipper-shaped  cofiins  and  funeral  urns,  numerous 
vases  and  dishes,  and  small  peculiar  tripods,  so-called  stilts, 
which  were  used  in  connection  with  the  burning  of  pottery 
in  exactly  the  same  way  as  they  are  employed  in  china-manu- 
factories to-day.  Terra-cotta  toys,  such  as  horses,  riders,  ele- 
phants, rams,  monkeys,  dogs,  birds,  eggs,  marbles,  and  baby 
rattles  in  the  shape  of  chickens,  dolls  and  drums,  spear-heads 
and  daggers,  metal  instruments  and  polishing  stones,  Parthian 
coins,  weights  and  whorls,  jewelry  in  gold,  silver,  copper, 
bone,  and  stone,  especially  necklaces,  bracelets,  ear  and  fin- 
ger rings,  fibulae  and  hair-pins,  together  with  about  thirty 
bowls  inscribed'with  Hebrew,  M andean  and  Arabic  legends, 
and  frequently  also  covered  with  horrible  demons  supposed 
to  molest  the  human  habitations  and  to  disturb  the  peace 
of  the  dead,  completed  our  collections. 

Soon  after  we  had  reached   NufFar,  Dr.  Peters  had  made 
23 


314  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

US  acquainted  with  the  low  ebb  in  the  finances  of  the  expedi- 
tion. It  was,  therefore,  decided  to  close  the  excavations  of 
the  first  campaign  at  the  beginning  of  May.  But  the  work- 
ing season  was  brought  to  a  conclusion  more  quickly  than 
could  have  been  anticipated.  The  trouble  started  with  the 
Arabs.  The  methodical  exploration  of  the  ruins  had  pro- 
ceeded satisfactorily  for  about  nine  weeks  till  the  middle  of 
April,  tablets  being  found  abundantly,  and  the  topography 
of  ancient  Nippur  becoming  more  lucid  everyday.  Notwith- 
standing those  countless  difficulties  which,  more  or  less,  every 
expedition  working  in  the  interior  of  Babylonia  far  away 
from  civilization  has  to  meet  at  nearly  every  turn,  we  began 
to  enjoy  the  life  in  the  desert  and  to  get  accustomed  to  the 
manners  of  the  fickle  Arabs,  whose  principal  "  virtues  " 
seemed  to  consist  in  lying,  stealing,  murdering,  and  lascivi- 
ousness.  And  the  'Afej,  on  the  other  hand,  had  gradually 
abandoned  their  original  distrust,  after  they  had  satisfied 
themselves  that  the  Americans  had  no  intention  of  erecting 
a  new  military  station  out  of  the  bricks  of  the  old  walls  for 
the  purpose  of  collecting  arrears  of  government  taxes.  But 
there  existed  certain  conditions  in  our  camp  and  around  us 
which,  sooner  or  later,  had  to  lead  to  serious  complications. 
Hajji  Tarfa,  the  supreme  shaikh  of  all  the  'Afej  tribes,  a 
man  of  great  diplomatic  skill,  liberal  views  and  far-reaching 
influence,  was  unfortunately  absent  in  the  Shamiye  when  we 
commenced  operations  at  Nuffar.  His  eldest  son,  Mukota, 
who  meanwhile  took  the  place  of  his  father,  was  a  sneaking 
Arab  of  the  lowest  type,  little  respected  by  his  followers, 
begging  for  everything  that  came  under  his  eyes,  turbulent, 
treacherous,  and  a  coward,  and  brooding  mischief  all  the 
while.  Two  of  the  principal  *Afej  tribes,  the  Hamza  and  the 
Behahtha,  both  of  which  laid  claim  to  the  mounds  we  had 
occupied,  and  insisted  on  furnishing  workmen  for  our  exca- 
vations, were  at  war  with  each  other.  At  the  slightest  prov- 
ocation and  frequently  without  any  apparent   reason   they 


DUEING  19''ii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      315 

threw  their  scrapers  and  baskets  away  and  commenced  the 
war-dance,  brandishing  their  spears  or  guns  in  the  air  and 
chanting  some  defiant  sentence  especially  made  up  for  the 
occasion,  as,  e.  g.y  "  We  are  the  slaves  of  Berdi,"  "  The  last 
day  has  come,"  "  Down  with  the  Christians,"  "  Matches  in 
his  beard  who  contradicts  us,"  etc.  The  Turkish  commis- 
sioner and  the  -zabtiye  (irregular  soldiers),  —  whose  number 
had  been  considerably  increased  by  the  qaimmaqam  of 
Diwaniye,  much  against  our  own  will,  —  picked  frequent 
quarrels  with  the  natives  and  irritated  them  by  their  over- 
bearing manners.  The  Arabs,  on  the  other  hand,  were  not 
slow  in  showing  their  absolute  independence  by  wandering 
unmolested  around  the  camp,  entering  our  private  tents 
and  examining  our  goods,  like  a  crowd  of  naughty  boys  ; 
or  bv  squatting  with  their  guns  and  clubs  near  the  trenches 
and  hurling  taunting  and  offensive  expressions  at  the  Otto- 
man government. 

It  was  also  a  mistake  that  we  had  pitched  our  tents  on 
the  top  of  the  ruins.  For  as  the  mounds  of  Nuffar  had  no 
recognized  owner  and  yet  were  claimed  by  the  Turks,  the 
Bedouins,  and  the  Ma'dan  tribes  at  the  same  time,  we  were 
practically  under  nobody's  protection,  while  by  our  very  con- 
spicuous position  we  not  only  suffered  exceedingly  from  hot 
winds  and  suffocating  sand  storms,  but  invited  plundering  by 
every  loiterer  and  marauder  in  the  neighborhood.  More- 
over, unacquainted  as  we  all  were  then  with  the  peculiar 
customs  of  Central  Babylonia,  we  had  not  provided  a  mudhif 
or  lodging-house,  a  spacious  and  airy  sarifa,  which  in  every 
large  village  of  the  country  is  set  apart  for  the  reception  of 
travellers  and  guests.  What  wonder  that  the  simple-minded 
children  of  the  desert  and  the  half-naked  peasants  of  the 
marshes,  who  noticed  our  strange  mode  of  living  and  saw  so 
many  unknown  things  with  us  for  which  they  had  no  need 
themselves,  shook  their  heads  in  amazement.  On  the  one 
hand  they  observed  how  we  spent  large  sums  of  money  for 


316  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

uncovering  old  walls  and  gathering  broken  pottery,  and  on 
the  other  they  found  us  eating  the  wild  boar  of  the  jungles, 
ignoring  Arab  etiquette,  and  violating  the  sacred  and  univer- 
sal law  of  hospitality  in  the  most  flagrant  way,  —  reasons 
enough  to  regard  us  either  as  pitiable  idiots  whom  they  could 
easily  fleece  or  as  unclean  and  uncouth  barbarians  to  whom  a 
pious  Shiite  was  infinitely  the  superior. 

Repeated  threats  to  burn  us  out  had  been  heard,  and  various 
attempts  had  been  made  to  get  at  our  rifles  and  guns.  One 
night  our  bread-oven  was  destroyed,  and  a  hole  was  cut  in 
the  reed-hut  which  served  as  our  stable.  Soon  afterwards  four 
sheep  belonging  to  some  of  our  workmen  were  stolen.  The 
thief,  a  young  lad  from  the  Sa'id,  a  small  tribe  of  bad  repute, 
half  Bedouin  and  half  Ma'dan,  encouraged  by  his  previous 
success,  began  to  boast,  as  Berdi  told  me  later,  that  he  would 
steal  even  the  horses  of  the  Franks  without  being  detected. 
Though  he  might  have  suspected  us  to  be  on  the  alert,  he 
and  a  few  comrades  undertook  to  execute  the  long-cherished 
plan  in  the  night  of  the  fourteenth  of  April.  Our  sentinels, 
who  had  previously  been  ordered  to  occupy  the  approaches 
to  the  camp  night  and  day,  frustrated  the  attempt  and  opened 
fire  at  the  intruders.  In  an  instant  the  whole  camp  was 
aroused,  and  one  of  the  thieves  was  shot  through  the  heart. 
This  was  a  most  unfortunate  occurrence,  and  sure  to  result 
in  further  trouble.  No  time  was  therefore  lost  to  inform 
the  'Afej  chiefs,  to  despatch  a  messenger  to  the  next  military 
station,  and  to  prepare  ourselves  for  any  case  of  emergency. 
"  Then  followed  a  period  of  anxious  suspense.  Soon  the 
death  wail  sounded  from  a  village  close  beneath  us,"  indi- 
cating that  the  body  of  the  dead  Arab  had  been  carried  oflf 
to  the  nearest  encampment.  "  Then  a  signal  fire  was  kin- 
dled. This  was  answered  by  another  and  another,  until  the 
whole  plain  was  clothed  with  little  lights,  while  through  the 
still  night  came  the  sounds  of  bustle  and  preparation  for 
the  attack."      On  the  next  morning  we  decided  to  avoid 


DURING   lOTii  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      317 

the  consequences  of  the  severe  laws  of  Arab  blood  revenge 
by  paying  an  adequate  indemnity  to  the  family  of  the  fallen 
man.  But  our  offer  was  proudly  rejected  by  the  hostile  tribe, 
and  an  old  Sa'id  workman,  employed  as  a  go-between,  re- 
turned with  torn  garments  and  other  evidences  of  a  beating. 
The  American  party  was  equally  prompt  in  refusing  to  give 
up  the  "  murderer."  The  days  and  nights  which  followed 
were  full  of  exciting  scenes.  Mukota,  Berdi,  and  other  'Afej 
shaikhs,  who  professed  to  come  to  our  assistance,  had  oc- 
cupied the  spurs  around  us.  Thirty  irregular  soldiers,  with 
six  hundred  rounds  of  cartridges,  were  sent  from  Diwaniye 
and  Hilla,  and  others  were  expected  to  arrive  in  the  near 
future.  There  were  constant  alarms  of  an  attack  by  the 
Sa'id.  The  'Afej,  not  concealing  their  displeasure  at  seeing 
so  large  a  number  oi  zabtiye  in  their  territory,  were  evidently 
at  heart  in  sympathy  with  the  enemy.  Besieged  as  we  practi- 
cally were,  we  were  finally  forced  to  withdraw  our  laborers 
from  the  trenches  and  make  arrangements  for  quitting  Nuf- 
far  altogether.  On  Thursday,  April  i8,  long  before  the  sun 
rose,  the  whole  expedition  was  in  readiness  to  vacate  the 
mounds  and  to  force  their  way  to  Hilla,  when  upon  the  trea- 
cherous order  of  Mukota,  an  Arab  secretly  set  fire  to  our  huts 
of  reeds  and  mats  and  laid  the  whole  camp  in  ashes  in  the  short 
space  of  five  minutes.  For  a  while  the  utmost  confusion 
prevailed,  the  zabtiye  got  demoralized,  and  occupied  a  neigh- 
boring hill ;  and  while  we  were  trying  to  save  our  effects, 
many  of  the  Arabs  commenced  plundering.  Half  the  horses 
perished  in  the  flames,  firearms  and  saddle-bags  and  $1000 
in  gold  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  marauders,  but  all  the  an- 
tiquities were  saved.  Under  the  war-dance  and  yells  of  the 
frantic  Arabs  the  expedition  finally  withdrew  in  two  divisions, 
one  on  horseback,  past  Suq  el-'Afej  and  Diwaniye,  the 
other  on  two  boats  across  the  swamps  to  Daghara,  and  back 
to  Hilla,  where  soon  afterwards  the  governor-general  of  the 
province  arrived,  anxious  about  our  welfare  and  determined, 
if  necessary,  to  come  to  our  rescue  with  a  military  force. 


318  i:xrLOEATioxs  ix  bible  laxds 

On  the  way  to  Baghdad  Harper  handed  in  his  resigna- 
tion. Field  gave  his  own  a  day  later,  Haynes,  who,  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  Philadelphia  Committee,  had  been 
appointed  United  States  Consul  at  Baghdad,  prepared  to 
settle  in  the  city  of  Harun  ar-Rashid,  and  with  Noorian  to 
await  further  developments,  Peters  was  recalled  by  cable 
to  America,  and  the  present  writer  was  requested  to  remain 
in  charge  of  the  expedition  in  Mesopotamia.  But  circum- 
stances beyond  his  control  made  it  impossible  for  him  to 
accept  this  trust  at  once,  and  necessitated  his  immediate 
return  to  Europe.^  Our  first  year  at  Babylonia  had  ended  in 
a  serious  disaster.  Dr.  Peters,  to  quote  his  own  words, 
*' had  failed  to  win  the  confidence  of  his  comrades,"'-  and 
more  than  $20,000  had  been  expended  merely  to  scratch 
the  surface  of  one  of  the  most  enormous  ancient  sites  in 
all  Western  Asia.  How  would  the  Ottoman  government 
view  the  unexpected  turn  in  our  work  among  the  tur- 
bulent Arabs  ?     Would  they  allow  the  expedition  to  return 

^  In  the  fall  of  1888,  when  I  departed  from  Germany  for  the  East,  my 
wife  was  so  ill  that  her  recovery  was  doubtful.  Upon  her  own  special  re- 
quest, however,  I  left  her  to  meet  my  obligations  in  Asia.  Soon  after  my 
return  from  NuiFar  to  Baghdad,  April,  1889,  I  was  informed  that  meanwhile 
she  had  been  operated  upon  unsuccessfully,  and  that  a  second  operation,  for 
which  mv  immediate  return  was  required,  was  necessary.  Twelve  years 
later,  when  I  was  in  the  Orient  again  upon  an  important  mission  in  connec- 
tion with  this  expedition,  she  actually  sacrificed  herself  for  the  cause  of  sci- 
ence, bv  concealing  her  serious  illness  in  order  not  to  interfere  with  my  work, 
and  by  writing  cheerful  and  encouraging  letters  to  me,  while  she  was  sinking 
fast,  and  knew  that  she  would  not  recover.  When  I  finally  returned  to  Ger- 
many in  perfect  ignorance  of  her  condition,  she  was  already  beyond  human 
aid  and  died  soon  afterwards  (March,  1902),  using  the  last  hours  of  her 
unselfish  life  to  execute  a  noble  deed  in  the  interest  of  Assyriology. 

2  Comp.  Peters,  "Nippur,"  New  York,  1897,  vol.  i,  p.  288.  Besides 
this  volume,  which  gives  a  subjectivelv  colored  and  not  always  very  reliable 
account  of  the  origin  and  history  of  the  first  campaign,  comp.  Hilprecht  in 
Koinische  Zcitung,  June  ^50,  1889,  Sundav  edition,  second  paper,  and  Harper 
in  "The  Biblical  World,"  vol.  i,  pp.   57-62. 


DURING   lO'ii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      31U 

in  the  fall  ?  And  if  no  obstacle  was  raised  in  Constan- 
tinople, would  the  Philadelphia  Committee,  after  so  many 
disappointments,  be  willing  to  resume  the  exploration  of 
Nuffar,  which  had  proved  to  be  a  task  by  far  more  expen- 
sive and  wearisome  than  most  of  the  contributors  could 
have  expected  ? 

Second  Campaign,  iSS()-iSgo.  It  is  to  the  great  credit 
of  the  small  number  of  enthusiastic  gentlemen  who  had 
previously  furnished  the  funds,  that  far  from  being  discour- 
aged by  what  had  occurred,  they  were  rather  "  favorably  im- 
pressed with  the  results  accomplished  by  the  first  year's 
campaign,"  and  decided  to  continue  the  excavations  at  Nuf- 
far  for  another  year  under  Dr.  Peters,  provided  that  the 
Turkish  authorities  at  Constantinople  would  approve  of 
their  plan.  The  wali  of  Baghdad,  who  was  principally  held 
responsible  for  the  safety  of  the  party  in  a  section  of  his 
province  over  which  he  had  little  control,  most  naturally 
opposed  the  return  of  the  expedition  with  all  his  power. 
But  thanks  to  the  lively  interest  and  the  energetic  support 
of  Hamdy  Bey,  the  Grand  Vizier  viewed  the  whole  matter 
very  calmly  and  in  a  different  light  from  what  it  had  been 
represented  to  him  by  the  local  officials.  Accordingly  he 
authorized  the  University  of  Pennsylvania's  expedition  to 
resume  its  interrupted  labors  in  Babylonia  in  the  same  year. 
On  October  lo.  Dr.  Peters  was  able  to  leave  the  Turkish 
capital  for  Beirut,  and  from  there,  by  way  of  Damascus  and 
Palmyra,  to  travel  to  Baghdad,  which  he  reached  about  the 
middle  of  December. 

Important  changes  had  meanwhile  taken  place  in  'Iraq 
el-'Arabi.  Soon  after  our  departure,  in  May,  1889,  a  fearhil 
cholera  epidemic  had  broken  out  in  lower  Babylonia,  and, 
following  the  courses  of  the  two  rivers,  had  spread  rapidly 
to  the  northern  districts.  With  the  exception  of  Hitj 
Nejef,  and  some  other  remarkably  favored  places,  it  had 
devastated  the  entire  country,  with  special  fury  raging  in 


320  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

the  marshy  districts  between  Nuffar  and  the  Shatt  el-Hai, 
where  our  old  enemy,  Mukota,  was  carried  off  as  one  of  its 
first  victims,  and  in  certain  notoriously  unclean  and  densely 
populated  quarters  of  Baghdad,  which  for  several  weeks  in  the 
summer  were  almost  completely  deserted  by  the  frightened 
population.  In  view  of  the  lingering  presence  of  the  dreaded 
scourge  in  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  and 
the  possibility  of  a  renewed  outbreak  of  the  same  plague  in 
the  spring,  the  director  deemed  it  necessary  to  engage  the 
services  of  a  native  physician  of  Syria,  Dr.  Selim  Aftimus, 
who  at  the  same  time  was  expected  to  make  those  botanical 
and  zoological  collections  for  which  the  present  writer  had 
earnestlv  pleaded,  before  the  first  expedition  was  organized. 
Haynes  and  Noorian  were  again  induced  to  associate  them- 
selves with  the  practical  management  of  the  undertaking 
on  the  road  and  in  the  field,  and  to  serve  in  the  same 
capacities  in  which  they  had  been  employed  the  previous 
year.  But,  at  the  special  desire  of  Dr.  Peters,  this  time  an 
American  scientific  staff  was  entirely  dispensed  with,  though 
Field  and  Hilprecht  would  have  been  willing  to  accompany 
the  expedition  again,  without  a  salary  but  with  increased 
responsibility.  This  was  a  most  unfortunate  decision  on 
the  part  of  the  director.  It  is  true,  a  solid  scientific  basis  of 
operations  had  been  established  in  the  first  campaign,  and 
consequently  there  was  no  immediate  need  of  an  architect 
and  Assyriologist  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  excavations  ; 
and  vet  it  was  impossible  to  excavate  properlv  for  any 
length  of  time  without  the  constant  advice  of  either  of 
them.  If,  nevertheless,  this  expedition,  sent  out  to  inves- 
tigate the  historv  of  one  of  the  largest,  most  ancient,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  most  ruined  and  complicated  sites  in  the 
country,  attempted  to  solve  its  difficult  problem  without 
the  trained  eyes  and  scientific  knowledge  of  technicallv 
prepared  men,  it  necessarilv  had  to  be  at  the  expense  of  a 
strictly  methodical  exploration  and  at  the  sacrifice  of  half 


DURING  19™  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND   BABYLONIA      321 

of  the  possible  results,  of  which  it  deprived  itself  in  conse- 
quence of  its  inability  to  follow  up  every  indication  on  the 
ground,  and  to  determine  most  of  the  perplexing  archaeo- 
logical questions  in  the  trenches. 

But  while  in  the  interest  of  scientific  research  we  cannot 
approve  of  Dr.  Peters'  fatal  course,  to  a  certain  degree  we 
can  explain  it.  He  was  anxious  to  save  expenses  in  con- 
nection with  an  undertaking  the  original  estimate  of  which 
he  had  considerably  underrated;  and  not  fully  aware  of  the 
fact  that  he  damaged  his  own  cause,  for  which  he  was  work- 
ing with  such  an  admirable  patience,  energy,  and  courage, 
he  desired  a  greater  freedom  in  his  movements  and  decisions 
from  the  influence  of  specialists,  who  formerly  had  caused 
him  great  trouble,  as  they  frequently  differed  with  him  in 
regard  to  the  most  fundamental  questions.  His  mind  being 
firmly  fixed  upon  tangible  results  which  by  their  mere  num- 
ber and  character  would  appeal  to  the  public,  he  naturally 
took  great  pains  to  obtain  them  at  the  least  possible  outlay 
of  time  and  money,  according  to  the  manner  of  Rassam 
and  other  earlier  explorers,  rather  than  to  examine  these  im- 
mense ruins  systematically  according  to  the  principles  laid 
down  by  the  modern  school  of  archaeologists.  We  must 
bear  this  circumstance  in  mind,  in  order  to  understand  and 
judge  his  work  leniently  and  to  appreciate  his  results,  which, 
though  one-sided  and  largely  misunderstood  by  him,  proved 
ultimately  to  be  of  great  importance  for  our  knowledge  of 
the  Cassite  and  Parthian  periods  of  Babylonian  history,  and 
furnished  welcome  material  for  our  restoration  of  the  chro- 
nology of  the  second  millennium. 

On  the  last  day  of  1889  the  caravan  left  Baghdad.  After 
repeated  unsuccessful  attempts  by  the  local  governors  of 
Hilla  and  Diwaniye  at  preventing  the  expedition's  return 
to  the  ruins,  the  excavations  were  resumed  on  January  14, 
with  about  two  hundred  workmen  from  Hilla,  who,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  ravages  of  cholera,  lack  of  rain,  and   failing 


322  EXPLORATIONS   IX  BIliLE  LANDS 

crops,  had  been  reduced  to  the  utmost  poverty,  and  now 
looked  eagerly  for  employment  in  the  trenches  of  Nuffar. 
They  continued  this  time  for  nearly  four  months,  and  termi- 
nated peacefully  on  May  3,  1890.  In  accordance  with  the 
advice  of  the  natives,  and  profiting  from  our  last  year's  expe- 
rience, Dr.  Peters  and  his  comrades  pitched  their  somewhat 
improved  camp  in  the  plain  to  the  south  of  the  western  hah 
of  the  ruins,  and  placed  themselves  under  the  protection  of 
but  a  single  chief,  Hamid  el-Birjud,  shaikh  of  the  Nozair, 
one  of  the  six  tribes  which  constitute  the  Hamza,  a  sub- 
division of  the  'Afej. 

There  could  be  little  doubt  that  the  Arabs  of  the  whole 
neighborhood  were  glad  to  see  the  expedition  once  more 
established  among  them.  All  the  preceding  troubles  seemed 
to  be  forgotten  entirely.  The  Sa'id  themselves  had  con- 
ducted Haynes  and  his  workmen  to  the  mounds  in  the 
natural  expectation  of  receiving  some  kind  of  recognition 
for  their  friendly  attitude,  doubly  remarkable,  as  the  old 
blood-feud  existing  between  them  and  the  expedition  had 
not  yet  been  settled.  An  excellent  opportunity  was  thus 
given  to  remove  the  only  cause  for  much  annoyance  and 
anxiety  on  the  part  of  the  Americans,  and  to  make  friends 
and  valuable  supporters  out  of  deadly  enemies,  by  recog- 
nizing the  general  law  of  the  desert  and  paying  a  small  sum 
of  money  to  the  family  of  the  man  who  had  been  killed  in 
the  act  of  robbery.  Only  ten  Turkish  liras  (=$44)  were 
demanded.  But  unfortunately.  Dr.  Peters,  who  otherwise 
entered  into  the  life  and  feelings  of  the  people  most  success- 
fully, mistook  the  acknowledgment  and  prompt  arrange- 
ment of  the  whole  affair  for  a  sign  of  weakness,  and  refused 
to  listen  to  any  proposal,  thereby  creating  a  feeling  of  con- 
stant uneasiness  and  unsafetv  on  the  part  of  Haynes,  which 
was  not  at  all  unreasonable,  and  as  a  matter  of  course  at 
times  interfered  seriously  with  the  work  of  the  expedition. 

Like  the  Sa'id,  who  vainly  endeavoreci  to  obtain  a  certain 


DURING  VJi'ii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND    BAHYLONIA      323 

share  in  our  work,  the  *Afej  could  not  always  be  trusted. 
They  all  wanted  to  guard  the  rare  "  goose  that  laid  the 
golden  egg,"  and  soon  became  jealous  of  the  Nozair  chief, 
who  had  pledged  himself  for  the  security  of  the  party. 
"  Fabulous  stories  of  our  immense  wealth  were  in  circu- 
lation. Everything  was  supposed  to  contain  money,  even 
our  boxes  of  provisions."  "  The  Arabs  believed  that  we 
were  digging  out  great  treasures,  and  it  was  confidently 
asserted  that  we  had  secured  the  golden  boat,  or  turrada^ 
which  from  time  immemorial  had  been  supposed  to  be  con- 
tained in  these  mounds."  The  mere  sight  of  a  gold  crown 
on  one  of  Peters'  teeth,  which  was  eagerly  pointed  out  by 
those  who  had  discovered  it  to  every  friend  and  newcomer, 
seemed  to  strengthen  their  conviction  and  excite  their  lust. 
The  comparative  ease  with  which  in  the  previous  year  so 
much  spoil  had  been  carried  off  through  Mukota's  treach- 
erous behavior,  aroused  the  cupidity  of  all  the  Arabs  and 
their  ardent  desire  to  repeat  his  example.  The  presence  of 
two  hundred  workmen  from  Hilla  and  Jumjuma,  who  could 
not  always  be  managed  to  keep  peace  with  one  another,  was 
regarded  by  the'Afej  shaikhs  as  an  affront  intended  to  dimin- 
ish their  personal  income,  since  they  were  entitled  to  one 
sixth  of  the  wages  received  by  their  own  tribesmen.  Besides, 
murderers  and  other  desperadoes,  who  had  fled  from  various 
parts  of  the  country  to  the  safer  districts  of  the  Khor  el-'Afej, 
were  never  lacking,  and  were  always  ready  to  join  in  a  con- 
spiracy which  would  lead  to  stealing  and  burning,  and  thus 
raise  their  importance  in  the  eyes  of  the  people.  In  spite 
of  the  friendly  assurances  from  the  Arabs,  there  prevailed 
a  general  sense  of  insecurity  all  the  while  around  Nuffar, 
which,  indeed,  is  the  atmosphere  more  or  less  character- 
istic of  all  modern  Babylonia. 

Fortunately,  however,  there  was  one  circumstance  which 
proved  of  priceless  value  to  the  members  of  the  expedition., 

^   Comp.  Layard,  "Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  London,   1853,  P-  557- 


324  L'XrLORATIOXS  IN   BIBLE  LAXDS 

'Ilie  notion  was  spread  among  the  'Afej  and  their  neighbor- 
ing tribes  that  the  foreigners  were  armed  with  great  magical 
power,  and  that,  in  punishment  of  the  firing  and  plundering 
of  their  camp,  they  had  brought  upon  their  enemies  the 
cholera,  which  was  not  quite  extinct  even  in  the  year  fol- 
lowing. Several  successful  treatments  of  light  ailments,  and 
exceedingly  bitter  concoctions  wisely  administered  to  vari- 
ous healthy  chiefs,  who  were  curious  to  see  and  to  taste  the 
truth  of  all  that  was  constantly  reported,  served  only  to 
assure  and  confirm  this  belief;  and  Peters,  on  his  part,  seized 
every  opportunity  to  encourage  and  to  develop  such  sen- 
timent among  the  credulous  'Afej.  He  intimated  to  them 
that  nothing  was  hidden  from  his  knowledge,  and  that  the 
accursed  money  which  had  been  stolen  would  find  its  way 
back  to  him  ;  he  made  mysterious  threats  of  sore  affliction 
and  loss  by  death  which  would  cause  consternation  among 
them  ;  and  to  demonstrate  his  superior  power  and  to  indi- 
cate some  of  the  terrible  things  which  might  happen  at  any 
moment,  he  finally  gave  them  a  drastic  exhibition  of  his 
cunning  art,  which  had  a  tremendous  effect  upon  all  who 
saw  it.  We  will  quote  the  story  in  his  own  language  :  "  Just 
before  sunset,  when  the  men  were  all  in  camp  and  at  leisure, 
so  that  I  was  sure  they  would  notice  \\  hat  we  did,  Noorian 
and  I  ascended  a  high  point  of  the  mound  near  by,  he 
solemnly  bearing  a  compass  before  me  on  an  improvised 
black  cushion.  There,  by  the  side  of  an  old  trench,  we 
went  through  a  complicated  hocus-pocus  with  the  compass, 
a  Turkish  dictionary,  a  spring  tape-measure,  and  a  pair  of 
field  glasses,  the  whole  camp  watching  us  in  puzzled  won- 
der. Immediately  after  our  dinner,  while  most  of  the  men 
were  still  busy  eating,  we  stole  up  the  hill,  having  left  to 
Haynes  the  duty  of  preventing  any  one  from  leaving  the 
camp.  Our  fireworks  were  somewhat  primitive  and  slightly 
dangerous,  so  that  the  trench  which  W'C  had  chosen  for  our 
operations  proved  rather  close  quarters.    The  first  rocket 


DURING  IQTH  CMNTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      325 

had  scarcely  gone  oft  when  we  could  hear  a  buzz  of  excited 
voices  below  us.  When  the  second  and  third  followed,  the 
cry  arose  that  we  were  making  the  stars  fall  from  heaven. 
The  women  screamed  and  hid  themselves  in  the  huts,  and 
the  more  timid  among  the  men  followed  suit.  As  Roman 
candles  and  Bengal  lights  followed,  the  excitement  grew  more 
intense.  At  last  we  came  to  our  piece  de  resistance^  the  tomato- 
can  firework.  At  first  this  fizzled  and  bade  fair  to  ruin  our 
whole  performance.  Then,  just  as  we  despaired  of  success, 
it  exploded  with  a  great  noise,  knocking  us  over  backward 
in  the  trench,  behind  a  wall  in  which  we  were  hidden,  and 
filling  the  air  with  fiery  serpents  hissing  and  sputtering  in 
every  direction.  The  effect  was  indescribably  diabolical,  and 
every  man,  woman,  and  child,  guards  included,  fled  scream- 
ing, to  seek  for  hiding-places,  overcome  with  terror," 

Great  as  the  immediate  impression  of  the  fearful  spectacle 
was  upon  the  minds  of  the  naive  children  of  the  desert,  who 
firmly  believed  in  the  uncanny  powers  of  demons  or  jinna^ 
this  successful  coup  did  not  stop  future  quarrels,  pilfering, 
and  murderous  attempts  altogether,  nor  did  it  secure  for  the 
camp  a  much  needed  immunity  from  illness  and  the  embar- 
rassing consequences  of  the  great  drought  which  at  the  outset 
was  upon  the  waters  of  Babylon,  or  of  the  subsequent  deluge, 
which  turned  the  whole  country  into  one  huge  puddle  and 
the  semi-subterranean  storehouses,  kitchens,  and  stables  of 
the  camp  into  as  many  cisterns.  Poor  Dr.  Aftimus,  on  whose 
technical  knowledge  the  fondest  hopes  had  been  built,  was 
himself  taken  down  with  typhoid  fever  the  very  day  the 
party  arrived  at  Nuffar.  Without  having  treated  a  single 
Arab  he  had  to  be  sent  back  to  Baghdad  while  in  a  state  of 
delirium,  but  fortunately  he  recovered  slowly  in  the  course 
of  the  winter.  After  this  rather  discouraging  first  experience 
of  medical  assistance  in  connection  with  our  archaeologi- 
cal explorations,  we  have  never  had  courage  to  repeat  the 
experiment.     With  a  simple  diet,  some  personal  care,  and  a 

24 


326  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Strict  observation  of  the  ordinary  sanitary  laws,  the  expe- 
dition as  a  whole  escaped  or  overcame  the  peculiar  dangers 
of  the  Babylonian  climate  during  the  following  campaigns. 

In  spite  of  all  the  disappointments  and  hardships,  which 
were  scarcely  less  in  the  second  year  than  they  had  been  in 
the  first,  the  great  purpose  of  the  expedition  was  not  for  a 
moment  lost  sight  of.  Our  past  excavations  had  been  scat- 
tered over  the  entire  surface  of  the  mounds.  Trial  trenches 
had  been  cut  in  many  places,  to  ascertain  the  general  charac- 
ter and  contents  of  the  ruins,  until  work  finally  concentrated 
at  three  conspicuous  points,  —  the  temple  (I),  the  so-called 
tablet  hill  (IV),  and  the  more  recent  building  with  its  fine 
court  of  columns  near  our  old  camp  (VII)  and  the  long 
ridge  to  the  southeast  of  it.  By  means  of  written  docu- 
ments, the  first  expedition  had  adduced  conclusive  evidence 
that  the  ruins  of  Nuffar  contained  monuments  of  the  time 
of  Naram-Sin  (about  3750  b.  c.)  and  even  of  a  period  con- 
siderably antedating  it.  It  had  discovered  numerous  remains 
of  the  third  pre-Christian  millennium,  and  clearly  demon- 
strated that  thousands  of  tablets  and  fragments  of  the  ancient 
temple  library  still  existed  in  the  large  triangular  mound  to 
the  south  of  the  temple  complex,  thereby  almost  determining 
the  very  site  of  this  famous  library.  It  furthermore  had 
traced  the  history  of  Nippur  by  a  few  inscriptions  through 
the  second  millennium  down  to  the  time  of  the  Persian  kings, 
and  lastly  shown,  in  connection  with  Parthian  coins  and  con- 
structions, Sassanian  seals,  Hebrew  and  Mandean  bowls, 
Kufic  coins  of  the 'Abbaside  caliphs,  and  other  antiquities, 
that  parts  of  the  ruined  city  were  inhabited  as  late  as  the 
ninth  century  of  our  own  era.  In  other  words,  it  had  sub- 
mitted material  enough  to  prove  that  at  least  five  thou- 
sand years  of  ancient  history  were  represented  by  this  enor- 
mous site.  It  remained  for  the  second  and  the  following 
expeditions  to  fill  this  vast  period  with  the  necessary  details, 
and,  if  possible,  even  to  extend  its  limits  bv  concentrated 
methodical  excavations  at  the  principal  elevations. 


'^^^M  .^"^^^  ■    i^m:     { 


DURING  19TII   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      327 

Among  the  various  mounds  and  ridges  which  constitute 
the  ruins  of  Nuffar,  there  was  none  more  important  than 
the  conical  hill  of  Bint  el-Amir  with  its  irregular  plateau  of 
^ei^ris  (I),  containing  the  stage-tower  and  temple  of  Bel. 
*'  This  great  mass  of  earth  covered  a  surface  of  more  than 
eight  acres,"  the  careful  examination  of  which  was  an  ambi- 
tious problem  in  itself,  especially  as  none  of  the  large  Baby- 
lonian temples  had  yet  been  excavated  completely.  At  the 
outset  the  expedition  had  therefore  decided  to  investigate 
this  complex  methodically,  to  determine  its  characteristic 
architectural  features,  and  to  trace  its  development  through 
all  the  periods  of  Babylonian  history  down  to  its  final  decay. 
But  owing  to  the  large  accumulations  of  rubbish  and  the 
very  limited  time  in  the  first  year  at  our  disposal,  we  had 
not  been  able  to  do  much  more  than  to  fix  the  corners  of 
the  ancient  ziggurrat  and  to  run  trenches  along  its  peculiar 
lateral  additions.  As  the  latter  were  constructed  of  large 
crude  bricks  and  surrounded  by  extensive  remains  of  rooms 
built  of  the  same  material,  and  as  numerous  antiquities  of  the 
Hellenistic  period  and  coins  of  the  Arsacide  kings  (about 
250  B.  C.-226  A.  D.)  were  unearthed  in  connection  with  them, 
I  had  "  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  ruins  we  had  found 
were  those  of  a  Parthian  fortress  built  on  the  site  of  the 
ancient  temple;  and  the  majority  of  the  members  of  the 
expedition  inclined  to  this  opinion."  ^  But  soon  afterwards 
Peters  changed  his  conviction  and  put  forth  his  own  theory, 
according  to  which  we  "  had  found  the  ancient  temple  of 
Bel  "  itself.  For  the  following  years  it  was  impossible  for 
me  to  test  his  statements  by  a  personal  examination  of  the 
trenches;  and  as  Haynes  simply  adopted  his  predecessor's 
theory  and   failed   to  throw  any  new  light  on  this   funda- 

1  Comp.  Peters,  "Nippur,"  vol.  ii,  p.  118,  where  he  reproduces  my  view 
correctly,  except  that  he  substitutes  Sassanian  for  Parthian,  owing  to  his 
frequently  indiscriminate  use  of  these  two  words  (comp.  p.  129  of  the  same 
work  ) . 


328  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

mental  question,  there  remained  nothing  but  either  to  ac- 
quiesce in  Peters'  view,  which,  however,  ignored  essential 
facts  brought  to  light  by  the  previous  excavations,  and  was 
contrary  to  certain  established  laws  of  Babylonian  archi- 
tecture, or  to  regard  the  famous  sanctuary  of  Bel  as  a  hope- 
less mass  of  crumbling  walls,  fragmentary  platforms,  broken 
drains,  and  numerous  wells,  reported  by  Haynes  to  exist 
at  widely  separated  levels,  often  in  very  strange  places  and 
without  any  apparent  connection  with  each  other. 

What  were  the  new  features  developed  at  this  "  perplex- 
ing mound  "  in  the  course  of  the  second  campaign  ?  By 
engaging  a  maximum  force  of  four  hundred  Arab  laborers, 
half  from  Hilla  and  Jumjuma,  half  from  the  'Afej  tribes 
around  Nuffar,  and  by  placing  the  greater  part  of  his  men 
at  the  temple  mounds,  the  director  was  able  to  attack  the 
problem  more  vigorously  and  to  remove  such  an  enormous 
mass  of  rubbish  that  at  the  end  of  his  work  he  could  boast 
"  that  in  cubic  feet  of  earth  excavated,  and  size  and  depth 
of  trenches,"  his  excavations  "far  surpassed  any  others  ever 
undertaken  in  Babylonia,"  and  that  De  Sarzec's  work  of 
several  seasons  at  Tello  "  was  probably  not  even  the  tenth 
part  as  large  as  our  work  of  as  many  months."  But  this 
difference  was  due  to  various  causes,  and  not  the  least  to 
the  difference  of  methods  pursued  by  the  two  explorers, 
quite  aside  from  the  fact  that  the  amount  of  rubbish  ex- 
tracted from  a  ruin  can  never  be  used  as  a  standard  by 
which  the  success  or  failure  of  an  archaeological  mission  is 
to  be  judged.  Peters  himself  characterizes  his  manner  of 
excavating  as  follows  :  "  We  sank  small  well-shafts  or  deep 
narrow  trenches,  in  manv  cases  to  the  depth  of  fiftv  feet  or 
more,  and  pierced  innumerable  small  tunnels  (one  of  them 
I20  feet  in  length)  after  the  native  method."^  In  other 
words,  he  examined  the  mounds  prettv  much  as  the  Arab 
peasants  did  at  Babvlon,  El-Birs,  and  other  places,  only  on 
^  Comp.  Peters,  /.  c,  vol.  ii,  pp.  1 1  i,  f^^. 


DURING  lOTH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      329 

a  larger  scale,  —  either  by  deep  perpendicular  holes  or  by 
"innumerable"  horizontal  mines,  instead  of  peeling  off  the 
single  layers  successively  and  carefully.  Was  this  scientific 
research  ?  The  results,  as  indicated  above,  were  naturally 
commensurate  with  the  method  employed.  Peters  did  not 
procure  a  satisfactory  plan  nor  the  necessary  details  of  the 
originally  well-preserved  vast  complex  of  buildings  which 
occupied  the  site  of  the  temple  of  Bel  "  at  the  time  of  its  last 
great  construction  ;  "  he  failed  to  ascertain  its  character  and 
purpose,  and  to  define  its  precise  relation  to  the  ziggurrat ;  he 
was  unable  to  determine  its  age,  or  even  to  fix  the  two  extreme 
limits  of  the  three  successive  periods  of  its  occupation  ;  and 
he  did  not  recognize  that  the  line  of  booths  situated  out- 
side of  the  southeast  fortified  enclosure  and  yielding  him 
a  fine  collection  of  inscribed  Cassite  monuments  belonged 
to  the  same  general  epoch  as  the  mass  of  crude  brickwork 
covering  the  temple.  As  far  as  possible,  his  assertions  have 
either  been  verified  or  corrected  by  the  present  writer's  later 
investigations  on  the  ruins.  But,  unfortunately,  much  of 
the  precious  material  had  been  removed  in  the  course  of  the 
second  and  third  campaigns,  or  was  subsequently  destroyed 
by  rain  and  other  causes,  so  that  it  could  no  longer  be  used 
for  the  study  and  reconstruction  of  the  history  of  the  ven- 
erable sanctuary  of  Nippur. 

The  following  is  Peters'  own  view  in  a  nutshell :  There 
are  about  sixteen  feet  of  ruins  below  a  surface  layer  of  three 
feet,  which  represent  the  last  important  restoration  of  the 
ancient  temple  by  a  monarch  "  not  far  removed  from  Nebu- 
chadrezzar in  time,"  and  living  about  500  b.  c.  This  ruler 
consequently  can  have  been  only  one  of  the  Persian  kings, 
notably  Darius  I,  or  perhaps  Xerxes.  The  sacred  precincts 
were  no  longer  "  consecrated  to  the  worship  of  Bel,"  but 
stood  in  the  service  of  "  a  new  religion."  The  old  form 
of  the  ziggurrat  was  changed  by  "  huge  buttress-like  wings 
added  on  each  of  the  four  sides,"  which  gave  the  structure 


330  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

"a  cruciform  shape  unlike  that  of  any  other  ziggurrat  yet 
discovered."  The  sanctuary  continued  to  exist  in  the  new 
form  for  about  three  hundred  to  three  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  until  after  the  Seleucidan  period,  somewhere  about 
or  before  150  b.  c,  when  men  ceased  to  make  additions  or 
repairs,  and  the  ancient  temple  of  Bel  fell  gradually  into 
ruins. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  disprove  this  fantastic  theory  in  detail. 
Peters*  own  excavations  and  our  previous  and  later  discov- 
eries make  it  entirely  impossible.  But  while  we  cannot  accept 
his  inferences,  which  are  contrary  to  all  the  evidence  pro- 
duced, we  recognize  that  he  brought  to  light  a  number  of 
facts  and  antiquities,  which  enable  us  to  establish  at  least  some 
of  the  more  general  features  of  this  latest  reconstruction. 
He  showed  that  a  considerable  area  around  the  ziggurrat 
was  enclosed  by  two  gigantic  walls  protected  by  towers.  He 
ascertained  their  dimensions,  followed  their  courses,  and  de- 
scribed the  extraordinary  size  of  their  bricks.  He  excavated 
fourteen  chambers  on  the  top  of  one  of  the  outer  walls,  and 
found  the  entire  space  between  the  inner  wall  and  the  ziggur- 
rat occupied  completely  by  similar  rooms.  He  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that  the  various  constructions  belonged  together 
and  formed  an  organic  whole.  A  long,  narrow  street,  however, 
which  ran  parallel  with  the  southeastern  line  of  fortifications, 
divided  the  houses  in  the  interior  into  two  distinct  sections. 
Several  of  the  chambers  in  the  southern  part  were  filled  with 
"great  masses  of  water-jars  piled  together."  They  doubtless 
had  served  as  storerooms  ;  others  were  kitchens,  as  indicated 
"by  the  fireplaces  and  other  arrangements;"  while  in  some 
of  the  rooms  "  were  curious  closets  with  thin  clay  parti- 
tions." The  rubbish  of  most  of  the  chambers  yielded  nu- 
merous fragments  of  pottery  of  the  Hellenistic  and  Roman 
periods,  remarkable  among  them  a  fine  brown  enamelled 
lamp  (head  of  Medusa),  and  many  terra-cotta  figurines,  es- 
pecially heads  of  women  frequently  wearing  a  peculiar  high 


DURING  19'ii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      331 


head-dress,  children,  and  groups  of  lovers.  1 1  is  a  characteris- 
tic feature  of  these  late  Babylonian  terra-cottas  that  they  are 
generally  hollow  in  the  interior,  while  their  outside  is  often 
covered  with  a  chalk  paste  by  which  the  artist  endeavored 
to  work  out  the  delicate 
facial  lines,  the  curled  hair, 
the  graceful  foldings  of 
the  garments,  and  other 
details,  with  greater  accu- 
racy,^ and  thus  to  pro- 
duce a  better  effect  of  the 
whole  figure,  which  some- 
times also  was  colored. 
Teeth  of  wild  boars  re- 
peatedly found  in  this 
stratum  indicate  that  the 
occupants  of  those  later 
constructions  were  fond 
of  hunting  the  character- 
istic animal  of  the  swamps 
around  Nippur. 

From  the  extraordinary 
amount  of  dirt  and  debris 
accumulated  during  the 
period  of  occupancy  of 
the  rooms,  and  from  the 
different  styles  of  art  ex- 
hibited by  the  antiquities 
discovered  in  them,  it  be- 
came evident  that  these 
latest  constructions  must  have    been  inhabited  for  several 

1  Comp.  e.  g.,  the  central  head  of  the  illustration  facing  p.  128  of  Peters' 
second  volume,  and  Nos.  31  and  32  of  Hilprecht,  "The  Babvlonian  Expe- 
dition of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,"  series  A,  vol.  ix,  plates  xiv  and 
XV,  Nos.  3  I  and  32, 


Lamp  in  Brown  Enamelled  Terra-cotta 

From  a  room  of  the  latest  temple  construction 


332  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

hundred  years.  A  similar  result  was  obtained  by  an  exam- 
ination of  the  stage-tower.  It  was  observed  that  the  zig- 
gurrat  of  the  cruciform  shape  above  referred  to,  which  con- 
sisted only  of  two  stages,  had  two  or  three  distinct  additions, 
and  that  the  unbaked  material  employed  in  them  was  iden- 
tical with  that  found  in  the  rooms  around  it. 

In  his  endeavor  to  reach  the  older  remains  before  the 
more  recent  strata  had  been  investigated  in  the  least  ade- 
quately, Peters  broke  through  the  outer  casing  of  the  zig- 
gurrat  built  of  "  immense  blocks  of  adobe,"  in  a  cavity  of 
which  he  discovered  a  well-preserved  goose  egg,  and  per- 
ceived that  there  was  an  older  stage-tower  of  quite  a  different 
form  and  much  smaller  dimensions  enclosed  within  the 
other.  By  means  of  a  diagonal  trench  cut  through  its  centre, 
he  ascertained  its  height  and  characteristic  features  down  to 
the  level  of  Ur-Gur,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  (which, 
however,  did  not  prove  correct)  that  the  ziggurrat  of  this 
ancient  monarch  was  the  earliest  erected  at  Nippur.  "  Wells 
and  similar  shafts  were  sunk  at  other  points  of  the  temple," 
especiallv  at  the  northern  and  western  corners,  where  he 
reached  original  constructions  of  Ashurbanapal  (668-626 
B.  c.)  and  Ur-Gur  (about  2700  b.  c),  and  discovered  scat- 
tered bricks  with  the  names  of  Esarhaddon  (681-668  b.  c.  ), 
Rammanshumusur  (about  iioo  b.  c),  Kadashman-Turgu 
(about  1250  B.  c),  Kurigalzu  (about  1300  b.  c),  Bur-Sin 
of  Nisin  (about  2500  b.  c),  in  addition  to  those  previously 
found,  "  showing  that  many  kings  of  many  ages  had  hon- 
ored the  temple  of  Bel  at  Nippur."  At  a  place  near  the 
western  corner  of  the  ziggurrat^  on  the  northwestern  side,  he 
descended  through  a  tunnel  some  six  feet  below  the  plain 
level,  striking  a  terra-cotta  drain  with  a  platform  at  its 
mouth  and  a  wall  of  plano-convex  bricks  similar  to  those 
preceding  the  time  of  Ur-Nina  at  Tello,  in  which  he  un- 
earthed also  a  beautiful,  highly  polished  jade  axe-head  and 
an  inscribed  pre-Sargonic  clay  tablet. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      333 

Immediately  in  front  of  the  southeastern  face  of  the  stage- 
tower,  Peters  conducted  a  larger  trench  with  a  view  of  ascer- 
taining the  successive  strata  of  the  whole  temple  plateau. 
Below  the  level  of  the  Parthian  castle  he  disclosed  "a  mass 
of  rubble  and  debris  containing  no  walls,  but  great  quantities 
of  bricks,  some  of  them  with  green  glazed  surfaces,  and 
many  bearing  inscriptions  of  Ashurbanapal."  In  penetrat- 
ing a  few  feet  farther,  he  came  upon  fragments  of  pave- 
ments and  soon  afterwards  upon  the  crude  brick  terrace  of 
Ur-Gur.  As  he  saw  that  the  walls  and  towers  of  the 
Parthian  fortress,  which  required  a  more  solid  foundation, 
descended  to  this  deep  level,  he  unhesitatingly  pronounced 
them  to  have  been  in  existence  2500  years  before  they 
were  built,  and  "  thought  it  not  impossible  "  that  at  that 
ancient  time  two  of  these  formidable  fortification  towers 
"were  columns  of  the  same  general  significance  as  the 
Jachin  and  Boaz  which  stood  before  the  Temple  of 
Yahweh  [Jehovah]  at  Jerusalem  "  !  While  excavating  in 
the  stratum  immediately  above  Ur-Gur's  platform,  he  came 
accidentally  upon  the  first  three  door-sockets  and  a  brick 
stamp  of  Shargani-shar-ali,  soon  afterwards  identified  by  me 
as  Sargon  I,  the  famous  king  of  Agade,  who  according  to 
Nabonidos  lived  about  3800  b.  c,  but  who  until  then  had 
been  regarded  generally  as  a  half-mythical  person.  In  the 
same  layer  there  were  found  about  eighty  fragments  of 
stone  vases  and  other  antiquities  inscribed  with  the  names 
of  Manishtusu  and  Urumush  (Alusharshid),  two  kings  of 
Kish  little  known,  who  lived  about  the  same  time  ;  Lugalzag- 
gisi  and  Lugalkigubnidudu,  two  even  earlier  rulers  of  Erech, 
and  RntGrnGUd.,  patesi  of  Lagash,  familiar  to  us  from  De 
Sarzec's  excavations.  In  spite  of  Haynes'  very  emphatic 
statement  to  the  contrary,  Peters  claims  to  have  reached 
the  real  level  of  Sargon  and  his  predecessors  at  two  points 
within  the  court  of  the  ziggurrat^  in  one  case  descending 
almost  sixteen  feet  below  the  present  plain.     Be  this  as  it 


334  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

may,  the  building  remains,  which  he  had  hitherto  disclosed, 
were  examined  by  him  far  too  poorly  and  unsystematically 
to  convey  to  us  even  a  tolerably  clear  idea  of  the  revered 
sanctuary  of  Bel  ;  and  the  inscriptions  gathered  were  so 
small  or  fragmentary  that  they  furnished  us  little  more 
than  the  names  and  titles  of  ancient  kings  and  patesis.  But 
the  material  obtained  sufficed  to  show  that  there  were  con- 
siderable ancient  Babylonian  ruins,  and  numerous  though 
generally  broken  cuneiform  inscriptions,  including  even  an- 
tiquities contemporaneous  with  the  earliest  monuments  of 
Tello,  contained  in  the  temple  hill  of  Nuffar. 

It  is  characteristic  of  Peters'  work  in  the  second  year  that 
it  was  not  carried  on  with  the  purpose  of  excavating  one  or 
two  layers  at  one  or  more  of  the  principal  mounds  of  the 
enormous  site  methodically,  but  with  the  intention  of 
"  sounding  "  as  many  places  as  possible,  and  of  discovering 
inscribed  objects.  Consequently  he  dug  a  little  here  and  a 
little  there  and  disturbed  many  strata  at  the  same  time.  No 
wonder  that  he  opened  trenches  also  in  the  southern  and 
southeastern  ridges  of  the  ziggurrat.  Nothing  of  impor- 
tance came  to  light  in  the  former,  but  his  labors  were  crowned 
with  a  remarkable  success  in  the  latter.  Examining  the  plan 
of  the  ruins  of  Nuffar  on  p.  305,  it  will  be  observed  that 
the  temple  mound  (I)  is  separated  from  mound  IV,  which 
I  regarded  as  the  probable  site  of  the  library,  by  a  deep  de- 
pression doubtless  representing  an  old  branch  of  the  Shatt 
en-Nil.  On  the  northeastern  edge  of  this  gully  there  is  a 
low  wall-like  elevation,  which  rises  only  about  thirteen  feet 
above  the  plain.  It  was  in  this  narrow  ridge  that  Peters 
excavated  more  than  twenty  rooms  resting  on  a  terrace  of 
earth  and  built  of  precisely  the  same  material  —  "  unbaked 
bricks  of  large,  almost  square  blocks,"  as  characterizes  the 
late  construction  on  the  top  of  the  temple  of  Bel.  Under 
ordinary  circumstances  he  probably  would  have  drawn  the 
obvious  inference  that  both  belong  to  the  same  period.      But 


DUEING   l'.)Tii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      335 

the  discovery  in  one  of  these  rooms  of  a  large  number  of 
Cassite  votive  objects  —  the  first  great  collection  of  antiqui- 
ties of  this  dynastv  ever  found  —  induced  him  to  ascribe  this 
whole  row  of  booths  to  a  time  a  thousand  years  earlier  than 
it  actually  was.  He  formulated  a  new  fantastic  theory,  ac- 
cording to  which  these  cameos  of  agate  and  thin  round  tablets 
of  lapis  lazuli,  with  their  brief  votive  inscriptions,  were  sold 
as  charms  to  pilgrims,  some  of  them  being  "  a  sort  of  masses 
said  for  the  repose  of  the  soul  of  such  and  such  a  king." 
The  true  facts  are  the  following.  All  these  interesting 
Cassite  relics  in  agate,  magnesite,  feldspar,  ivory,  turquoise, 
malachite,  lapis  lazuli,  and  an  imitation  of  the  last-mentioned 
three  stones  in  glass,  "  together  with  gold,  amethyst,  por- 
phyry and  other  material  not  yet  worked,"  were  originally 
contained  in  a  wooden  box,  traces  of  which  (carbonized  frag- 
ments and  copper  nails)  were  lying  around  them.  Most, 
if  not  indeed  the  whole,  of  this  unique  collection  had  been 
presented  by  a  number  of  Cassite  kings  to  various  shrines 
of  the  temple  of  Bel  somewhere  between  1400  and  1200 
B.  c.  A  thousand  years  later,  when  the  temple  was  in  ruins, 
an  inhabitant  of  Nippur,  and  himself  a  dealer  in  precious 
stones,  searched  in  the  neighborhood  of  his  booth  for  raw 
material,  and  discovered  them,  or  purchased  them  from 
other  diggers.  He  was  about  to  manufacture  beads  for  neck- 
laces and  bracelets,  rings,  charms,  and  the  like  out  of  them,' 

1  A  votive  cylinder  of  Kurigalzu  in  agate  had  been  cut  into  three  beads 
without  regard  to  its  legend  ;  a  votive  inscription  had  been  erased  insuffi- 
ciently from  an  axe-head  in  lapis  lazuli  ;  a  small  block  ot  the  same  material 
showed  a  deep  incision  beneath  the  inscribed  portion,  just  about  to  be  cut  off, 
while  several  other  blocks  in  lapis  lazuli  and  magnesite  had  been  reduced  con- 
siderably from  their  original  weight,  as  could  easily  be  established.  Comp. 
Hilprecht,  "The  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania," 
series  A,  vol.  i,  part  i,  nos.  28,  50,  74,  and  plate  xi,  nos.  25  and  28  ; 
part  2,  no.  140,  and  Zeitschrift  fur  Assyriologie,  pp.  \()0,  seqq.,  where, 
misled  by  Peters'  reports,  I  gave  an  erroneous  interpretation  of  the  facts 
treated  above. 


336  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

when  another  catastrophe  befel  Nippur.  Several  other 
"jeweller's  shops"  of  the  Parthian  period  excavated  by  our 
expedition  at  different  sections  of  the  ruins  established  the 
correctness  of  this  interpretation  beyond  any  doubt.  And 
when  in  May,  1900,  I  spent  a  few  days  with  the  expedition 
at  Babylon,  Koldewey  had  found  a  similar  shop  in  the 
mound  of  '0(A)mran  ibn  'All,  which,  besides  purely  Par- 
thian antiquities,  contained  several  more  ancient  objects 
from  various  Babylonian  ruins,  and  for  this  reason  proved 
particularly  instructive.  No  sooner  had  the  German  explorer 
submitted  the  inscribed  objects  of  this  shop  to  me  for  ex- 
amination, than  1  recognized  and  pointed  out  to  him  a 
number  of  Cassite  objects,  which,  according  to  their  mate- 
rial, forms,  and  inscriptions  belonged  originally  to  the  temple 
at  Nippur,  illustrating  in  an  excellent  way  how  the  trade  in 
"  useful  "  antiquities  flourished  in  Babylonia  even  two  thou- 
sand years  before  our  own  time. 

An  even  more  far-reaching  discovery,  the  real  significance 
of  which  lies  in  its  bearing  upon  the  topography  of  ancient 
Nippur,  but  again  unfortunately  not  recognized  by  Peters, 
was  made  a  little  to  the  northwest  of  these  booths.  This 
was  a  shrine  of  Bur-Sin  I,^  the  walls  of  which  were  built 
of  baked  brick  laid  in  bitumen,  and  were  still  seven  to  four- 
teen courses  high.  Consisting  of  two  rooms,  it  stood  upon 
a  platform  of  the  same  material  and  faced  inward  toward 
the  entrance  to  the  court  of  the  ziggurrat.  According  to 
the  legends  inscribed  on  the  bricks  and  on  two  door- 
sockets  found  in  situ,  it  had  been  dedicated  to  Bel  himself 
about  2600  B.  c.  A  pair  of  clasped  hands  from  a  dolerite 
statue  similar  to  those  excavated  at  Tello,  a  number  of  in- 
scribed fragments  of  bas-reliefs,  and  an  archaic  mortar  dec- 

1  As  Thureau-Dangin  has  recently  shown  that  there  was  only  one  dynasty 
of  Ur  in  the  third  pre-Christian  millennium,  Bur-Sin  of  Nisin,  hitherto  classi- 
fied as  Bur-Sin  I,  must  henceforth  be  called  Bur-Sin  II,  while  Bur-Sin  of  Ur 
takes  the  first  place. 


DURING  lOTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      337 

orated  with  an  eagle  and  a  snake  evidently  fighting  with 
each  other  were  taken  from  the  debris  around  it,  bearing 
witness  to  the  elaborate  manner  in  which  the  ancient  Baby- 
lonians embellished  their  temples.  As  we  shall  have  to 
say  a  few  words  about  the  relation  of  this  shrine  to  the 
ziggurrat  later,  when  we  give  a  summary  of  the  principal 
results  of  the  Philadelphia  expedition,  we  continue  at  present 
to  sketch  Dr.  Peters'  explorations  on  the  other  mounds  of 
Nuffar. 

To  the  east  of  our  first  camp  we  had  previously  discov- 
ered the  remains  of  tapering  brick  columns,  symmetrically 
arranged  around  an  open  square  court  (VII).  It  was  nat- 
ural to  suppose  that  this  peculiar  structure  belonged  to  a 
more  pretentious  building  with  interesting  architectural  fea- 
tures, as  the  mere  presence  of  columns  indicated  sufficiently. 
Though  the  present  writer  had  assigned  it  without  hesitation 
to  the  Seleucido-Parthian  period  (about  250  b.  c),  it  was 
desirable  and  necessary  to  excavate  it  completely,  before  the 
more  important  Babylonian  strata  beneath  it  should  be  ex- 
amined. In  order  to  execute  this  task,  Peters  began  to 
remove  the  Jewish  and  early  Arabic  houses  representing 
the  latest  traces  of  human  settlements  everywhere  in  the 
precincts  of  ancient  Nippur,  and  the  numerous  Parthian  and 
Sassanian  coffins,  sepulchral  urns,  and  pottery  drains  imme- 
diately below  them.  The  former  were  characterized  by 
Kufic  coins,  Hebrew,  Arabic,  and  Mandean  incantation 
bowls,  and  other  articles  of  domestic  use,  which  were  gen- 
erally found  in  low  and  narrow  rooms  made  of  mud-bricks. 
We  had  frequently  noticed  the  outlines  of  their  walls  in 
the  preceding  year,  as  we  walked  over  the  hills  in  the 
early  morning,  when  the  rapidly  evaporating  humidity  of 
the  ground  drew  the  saltpetre  contained  in  the  clay  to  the 
surface.^  The  tombs,  on  the  other  hand,  occurred  in  an 
indescribable  confusion  in  all  possible  positions  and  at  nearly 

^  Comp.  p.  283,  above. 
26 


338  EXPLORATIONS   IX   BIBLE  LANDS 

every  depth  in  the  layer  of  rubbish  which  filled  the  space 
between  the  uppermost  settlement  and  the  floor  of  the  build- 
ing just  mentioned  to  the  height  ot  six  to  ten  feet.  In  no 
instance,  however,  were  they  discovered  below  the  level  of 
the  court  of  columns,  while  repeatedly  the  burial-shafts  were 
cut  through  the  walls  of  the  rooms  grouped  around  it.  Hence 
it  follows  that  these  interments  must  have  taken  place  at  a 
time  when  the  imposing  building  was  already  in  ruins, — in 
other  words,  at  a  period  commencing  shortly  before  our  own 
era,  and  terminating  about  the  sixth  or  seventh  century 
A.  D.,  if  the  palace  in  question  was  really  of  Seleucido-Parthian 
origin.  This,  however,  was  contested  by  Peters,  who  be- 
lieved to  have  found  evidence  that  the  structure  was  a  thou- 
sand years  earlier.  His  work  in  and  around  this  building 
may  be  sketched  briefly  as  follows  : — 

The  open  court  flanked  by  columns  having  been  excavated 
completely  in  1889,  Peters  undertook  next  to  search  for  the 
rooms  to  which  it  probably  gave  light  and  access.  As,  in 
consequence  of  the  slope  of  the  hill,  a  considerable  part  of 
the  ancient  building  had  been  washed  away  in  the  northeast 
and  southeast  directions,  he  concentrated  his  efforts  upon  an 
examination  of  the  highest  section  of  the  mound,  exploring 
especially  the  ruined  mass  southwest  of  the  colonnade.  He 
was  soon  able  to  show  that,  contrary  to  our  previous  theory, 
certain  pieces  of  charred  wood  and  small  heaps  of  ashes  dis- 
covered along  the  edge  of  the  court  did  not  belong  to  sub- 
sequent burials,  but  were  remains  of  palm  beams  which  ori- 
ginally rested  on  the  columns  and  stretched  across  a  narrow 
space  to  the  walls  of  chambers  surrounding  the  former  on 
all  four  sides.  We  should  expect  that  Peters,  once  having 
established  this  interesting  fact,  would  have  spared  no  pains 
to  examine  a  building  systematically,  which,  as  late  as  1897, 
he  described  as  "  the  most  interesting  and  ambitious  struc- 
ture excavated  at  Nippur  next  to  the  temple."  But  judging, 
as  he  did,  the  success  of  his  expedition  mainly  "by  the  dis- 


DURING  lOTh  CENTURY :  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      339 

covery  of  inscribed  objects  or  failure  to  discover  them,"^  and 
nervously  endeavoring  to  secure  them  at  all  hazards,  he 
unfortunately  adopted  the  injurious  and  antiquated  methods 
of  Layard  and  Rassam,  which  I  have  characterized  above,^ 
also  for  the  exploration  of  the  west  section  of  the  ruins.  In- 
stead of  removing  layer  after  layer  of  all  the  superincumbent 
rubbish,  he  excavated  only  portions  of  seven  rooms  with 
their  adjoining  corridors  by  digging  along  their  walls  and 
leaving  the  central  mass  untouched.  And  when  even  this  pro- 
cess proved  too  slow  and  tedious,  he  drove  tunnels  into  the 
mound  above  and  below  the  floor  of  the  building,  which 
afterwards  caved  in,  ruined  part  of  the  construction,  and 
caused  infinite  trouble  to  himself  and  his  successors.^  At 
the  same  time  the  excavated  earth  was  not  carried  to  a  pre- 
viously explored  place  at  a  safe  distance,  but  was  dumped  on 
the  same  mound,  and  in  part  on  an  unexplored  section 
of  the  very  ruins  which  he  was  desirous  to  examine,  and 
whence  the  present  writer  had  to  remove  it  ten  years  later. 
We  cannot,  therefore,  be  surprised  that  the  results  finally 
obtained  were  correspondingly  meagre  and  unsatisfactory. 
Peters  ascertained  that  a  building  of  considerable  extent 
and  importance,  constructed  "  of  unbaked  brick  in  large 
blocks,"  was  buried  there ;  he  determined  its  west  corner, 

^  On  p.  202  of  his  "Nippur,"  vol.  ii,  Peters  makes  the  committee  in 
Philadelphia  responsible  for  his  methods  of  exploration.  As  I  was  secretary 
of  that  committee,  I  should  know  of  "the  constant  demand  of  the  home 
committee"  for  inscribed  objects.  But  there  is  no  such  "demand  "  con- 
tained anywhere  in  our  minutes,  nor  do  I  remember  any  such  order  ever 
having  been  sent  through  me  to  Dr.  Peters.  The  true  attitude  of  the  com- 
mittee is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  it  was  "  favorably  impressed  with  the 
results  accomplished  by  the  first  year's  campaign  "  (comp.  Peters,  /.  c,  vol. 
ii,  p.  5),  and  that  ten  years  later  it  supported  me  energetically  in  my  efforts 
to  change  the  obnoxious  methods  of  excavation  inaugurated  by  Peters  and 
adopted  by  Haynes. 

^  Comp.  pp.   103,  se^.,  194,  sfq.,  321,  se^.,  328,  seg. 

^  Comp.  Peters,  /.  c,  vol.  ii,  pp.   179,  se^.,  and  the  plan  facing  p.   178. 


340  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

traced  its  southwestern  boundary  wall  for  164  feet,  found 
several  uninscribed  door-sockets  in  situ,  and  inferred  from 
the  numerous  remains  of  charred  wood,  burned  barley,  and 
large  red  spots  seen  everywhere  on  the  walls,  doubtless 
due  to  the  effects  of  intense  heat,  that  the  whole  complex 
must  have  been  destroyed  by  fire.  Thus  far  we  can  follow 
him  without  difficulty.  But  though  nothing  but  late  anti- 
quities ^  had  been  discovered  within  this  enclosure,  he  arrived 
at  the  startling  conclusion  that  the  large  structure  was  a  Cas- 
site  palace,  "erected  somewhere  between  1450  and  1250 
B.  c."  How  was  this  possible  ?  These  are  his  arguments: 
On  the  one  hand,  he  unearthed  a  nest  of  about  three  hun- 
dred fine  clay  tablets  and  many  fragments  dated  in  the 
reigns  of  Kurigalzu,  Kadashman-Turgu  and  Nazi-Marut- 
tash,  lying  in  the  loose  earth  outside  the  southwest  wall  of 
the  building  in  question,  several  yards  away  from  it,  and 
slightly  below  its  level.  On  the  other  hand,  he  saw  a  build- 
ing with  similar  columns  on  the  top  of  a  mound  otherwise 
unknown,  called  Abu  Adhem,  a  little  to  the  south  of  Jokha. 
As  antiquities  of  a  period  preceding  2000  b.  c.  had  been 
picked  up  by  various  travellers  at  Jokha  and  other  neigh- 
boring hills,  which  are  situated  "  in  the  sphere  of  influence 
ofTello,"'  he  concluded  —  strange  to  say — that  the  build- 
ing at  Abu  Adhem  "  belonged  to  the  middle  of  the  third 
millennium  b.  c."^  I  confess  my  inability  to  follow  this 
kind  of  reasoning  or  to  appreciate  his  "  evidence  of  the  sur- 
rounding mounds."  If,  indeed,  the  colonnade  of  Abij 
Adhem  were  as  ancient  as  Dr.  Peters  supposes  it  to  be,  and 

^  Except  the  fragment  of  a  statue  in  dolerite  (a  woman  holding  a  lamb, 
comp.  Peters,  /.  c,  vol.  ii,  p.  184),  which  belonged  to  the  third  pre- 
Christian  millennium.  Being  out  of  its  original  place,  it  was  discovered  in  a 
Jewish  house  on  the  top  of  the  hill. 

2  A  ruin  which,  by  the  way,  also  has  its  Seleucido-Parthian  palace  lying 
on  the  top  of  the  temple  mound. 

^  As  to  Peters's  naive  arguments,  comp.  his  "Nippur,"  vol.  ii,  pp. 
186,  se^q. 


DURING   lO'i"   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      341 

not,  rather,  Parthian,  as  everything  hidicates,  why  did  he 
not  make  the  columns  of  Nippur,  which  are  "  precisely  like 
them,"  precisely  as  old  ?  Apparently  because  the  discov- 
ery of  Cassite  tablets  outside  the  large  complex  did  not 
allow  this.  But  are  we  on  their  account  justified  in  claim- 
ing the  structure  as  Cassite?  Certainly  not.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  prove  that  the  Cassite  houses  once  occupying  this 
site  must  have  been  in  ruins  at  the  time  when  the  palace 
was  erected,  and  that  consequently  the  latter  and  its  brick 
terrace,  for  the  construction  of  which  the  older  stratum  had 
to  be  disturbed  and  levelled,  cannot  be  contemporaneous 
with  the  Cassite  rulers  mentiorred  above,  but  must  be  of  a 
considerably  more  recent  date. 

The  exploration  of  the  large  and  important  building  re- 
mains grouped  around  the  ziggurrat  and  "  the  court  of  col- 
umns "  had  formed  one  of  Peters'  principal  tasks  during 
his  second  campaign.  But  his  hope  of  discovering  many 
inscribed  Babylonian  tablets  while  excavating  these  ruins  was 
not  to  be  realized.  To  find  these  eagerly-sought  treasures 
somewhere  in  the  vast  mounds  he  had  conducted  extensive 
excavations  from  the  beginning  In  several  other  parts  of  the 
ruins.  Above  all,  he  most  naturally  had  directed  his  atten- 
tion to  the  triangular  mound  (IV)  ^  to  the  south  of  the 
temple,  which  had  yielded  almost  all  the  tablets  obtained  by 
the  first  expedition.  He  now  "riddled  it  with  trenches 
everywhere " '"  and  without  difficultv  secured  about  2000 
tablets  more  of  the  same  general  type  as  those  discovered 
previously  —  business  documents,  school  exercises,  and  nu- 
merous tablets  of  a  strictly  scientific  or  literary  character, 
especially  astronomical,  mathematical,  and  medical.  As, 
however,  Peters  did  not  possess  the  necessary  Assyriological 
knowledge  to  determine  their  age  and  contents,  and  as, 
moreover,  these  tablets  were   never  deposited   in   any  large 

^   Comp.  the  plan  of  the  ruins  on  p.  305,  above. 
^  Comp.  Peters,  I.e.,  vol.  ii,  p.   199. 


342  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

number  together,  but  "seemed  to  lie  loose  in  the  earth  " 
or  "  confused  among  buildings  with  which  they  did  not  be- 
long," ^  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  this  hill  with  its  two 
principal  strata,  which  1  had  declared  to  be  the  probable  site 
of  the  temple  library,  was  "  the  home  of  well-to-do  citizens, 
rather  than  the  site  of  the  great  public  building  of  the  city," 
and  abandoned  it  towards  the  middle  of  March,  "  because 
he  had  ceased  to  find  tablets  in  paying  quantities." 

It  was  about  the  same  time  that  the  southeastern  wing  of 
the  mounds  on  the  other  side  of  the  canal  (VI,  and  the 
ridge  immediately  to  the  northwest  of  it)  began  to  yield 
tablets  "  in  an  extraordinary  manner."  The  prospect  of  a 
more  rapid  increase  of  the  coveted  inscriptions  being  thus 
given,  all  the  "  tablet  diggers  "  were  transferred  at  once  to 
this  new  promising  locality.  Before  many  weeks  had  elapsed, 
more  than  5,000  tablets  and  fragments  had  been  gathered, 
so  that  with  regard  to  the  mere  number  of  clay  documents 
recovered,  Peters  might  well  be  pleased  with  the  success 
which  he  had  scored.  Without  troubling  himself  about  the 
methodical  examination  and  removal  of  the  highest  strata, 
which  in  the  previous  year  had  yielded  contracts  of  the 
late  Babylonian  and  Persian  periods,  he  cut  "  sounding- 
trenches  at  various  points  in  the  interior,  where  the  water 
had  washed  out  deep  gullies."  In  every  instance  he  came 
upon  rooms  of  mud  brick  containing  "  quantities  of  tab- 
lets," mixed  with  earth  and  grotesque  clay  figures  of  Bel  and 
his  consort.  There  was  in  particular  one  chamber,  thirty- 
two  feet  long  by  sixteen  feet  wide,  which  was  literally  filled 
with  them.  So  numerous,  were  the  tablets  there  "  that  it 
took  thirty  or  forty  men  four  days  to  dig  them  out  and 
bring  them  into  camp."  For  the  most  part  they  were  un- 
baked, and  lay  in  fragments  on  the  floor.  But  as  the 
ashes  observed  in  connection  with  them  clearly  indicated, 
they  originally  "  had  been  placed  around  the  walls  of  the 

^   Comp.  ibiJem,  pp.  200-203. 


Bel,  "  the  Father  of  the  Gods" 


'-::.-    ■*,■ 


■x    ■  ■  ./ '     / 


y 


Behis,  his  Consort 

Terra-Cotta  Images  of  Bel  and  his  Consort 
About  2joo  B.  C. 


DURING  19™  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      343 

room  on  wooden  shelves,"  which  broke  or  were  burned, 
when  the  house  was  destroyed  and  the  roof  fell  in.  All 
the  tablets  discovered  in  these  rooms  and  in  this  ridge  in 
general  are  so-called  private  contracts  and  official  records, 
such  as  receipts,  tax-lists,  statements  of  income  and  ex- 
pense written  in  behalf  of  the  government  and  of  the 
temple,^  and,  as  a  rule,^  are  dated  according  to  the  reigns 
of  the  last  kings  of  Ur  (about  2600  b.  c),  the  first  dynasty 
of  Babylon  (about  2300-2000  b.  c),  Rim-Sin  of  Larsa  (a 
contemporary  of  Hammurabi),  and  especially  several  kings 
of  the  Cassite  dynasty  (about  1400-1200  b.  c).  The  older 
documents  are  valuable  chiefly  for  their  closing  lines  con- 
taining brief  references  to  the  principal  historical  events,  after 
which  the  single  years  of  the  monarchs  were  called  and 
counted.  The  tax-lists  from  the  latter  half  of  the  second 
millennium  are  of  importance  because  of  their  bearing  upon 
the  chronology  of  the  Cassite  kings,  and  because  they  give 
us  a  first  insight  into  the  civil  administration  of  Central 
Babylonia  under  those  foreign  conquerors  of  whom  previ- 
ously we  knew  little  more  than  their  names,  and  these  often 
enough  only  very  imperfectly. 

Peters  confesses  frankly  :  "  My  trenches  here  were  dug 
principally  for  tablets."  ^"  Little  attention,  therefore,  could  be 
paid  to  the  fundamental  question,  whether  at  the  different 
periods  of  its  occupation  this  ridge  was  covered  with  "ordi- 
nary houses  "  only,"*  or  whether  the  single  rooms  formed  an 
organic  whole,  an  annex  of  the  temple,  a  large  government 

^  Peters'  statement,  /.  c,  vol.  ii,  p.  212,  is  one-sided  and  incorrect. 

^  There  are  only  about  fifty  to  one  hundred  tablets  among  them  which  are 
dated  in  the  reigns  of  Assyrian,  neo-Babylonian,  and  Persian  kings.  They 
were  taken  from  the  upper  stratum. 

^  L.  c,  vol.  ii,  p.  212. 

*  Peters'  statement  "  In  no  case  did  we  find  structures  of  any  import- 
ance "  (p.  211)  is  of  little  value.  His  comparison  of  the  "ordinary  houses  " 
discovered  in  this  ridge  with  those  unearthed  in  mound  IV  illustrates  his 
curious  conception  of  the  character  of  Babylonian  public  buildings. 


344  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

building  with  registering  offices,  a  kind  of  bazaar,  or  both, 
as  seems  to  result  with  great  probability  from  a  study  of  the 
tablets  and  from  later  discoveries  made  in  this  neighborhood 
by  the  present  writer.  Indeed,  it  was  a  dark  day  when 
Peters  decided  to  excavate  the  ruins  of  Nuffiir  without  the 
aid  of  a  specialist,  whether  Assyriologist  or  architect.  For- 
tunately Pognon,  then  French  consul  at  Baghdad,  occasion- 
allv  lent  a  helping  hand  in  determining  the  age  and  contents 
of  some  of  the  better  preserved  inscriptions  from  squeezes 
and  photographs  submitted  to  him,^  and  Peters  could  con- 
gratulate himself  that  at  the  time  of  his  greatest  need  a 
Hungarian  engineer,  in  the  employ  of  the  Ottoman  gov- 
ernment, Coleman  d'Emey,  appeared  suddenly  in  the  camp 
to  hunt  in  the  Babylonian  swamps.  He  was  easily  induced 
to  devote  part  of  his  time  to  a  renewed  survey  of  the  prin- 
cipal ruins  and  to  the  preparation  of  plans  of  the  excavated 
walls  and  rooms  of  the  two  Parthian  palaces.  It  is  true,  ac- 
cording to  the  director's  own  statement,  the  real  merits  of  his 
drawings  are  to  be  judged  leniently,^  but  in  connection  with 
Peters'  scanty  notes  they  enabled  us  at  least  to  form  a  gen- 
eral idea  of  the  character  and  disposition  of  the  latest  con- 
structions on  the  temple  mound. 

On  the  third  day  of  May  the  excavations  of  the  second 
campaign  came  to  a  more  peaceful  ending  than  those  in  the 
previous  year.  Before  the  trenches  were  abandoned,  Peters 
very  wisely  decided  to  send  part  of  his  material  out  of  the 
country,  "  to  insure  the  preservation  of  something  in  case 
of  disaster."  For  in  consequence  of  his  stubborn  refusal 
to  pay  the  often  demanded  blood-money  to  the  Sa'id,  the 
disappointed  tribe  very  naturally  sought  to  indemnify  itself 
in  another  way.  A  first  boat-load  of  antiquities  had  left 
Nuffar  safely  towards  the  end  of  April.  At  the  same  time 
Haynes,  who   not  without  reason  feared  being  waylaid  and 

^  Comp.  Peters,  /.  c,  vol.  ii,  pp.  51  and  280. 
^  Comp.  Peters,  /.  c,  vol.  ii,  pp.  90,  sff^. 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      345 

plundered  by  a  g/iazu,  "  stole  away  in  the  night,"  and 
"pressed  through  to  Hilla  in  hot  haste."  To  prevent  an 
attack  planned  by  the  enemy  upon  his  camp  for  the  night 
preceding  the  final  departure  of  the  expedition,  Peters  "  re- 
sorted once  more  to  stratagem,  and  gave  a  second  exhibition 
of  fireworks,"  which  again  had  the  desired  effect.  The  Sa'id 
then  hoped  to  intercept  him  as  he  left  the  territory  of  the 
'Afej,  and  try  to  extort  blackmail.  But  the  American 
slipped  out  of  their  hands  before  they  realized  that  he  had 
gone.  As  soon  as  all  the  workmen  from  Jumjuma  had  been 
sent  in  detachments  through  the  marshes  and  everything 
was  packed  upon  the  last  boats,  including  the  Turkish  com- 
missioner and  the  zabtiye^  Peters  and  Noorian,  accompanied 
by  some  trusted  Arab  laborers  and  a  personal  servant,  turned 
to  the  village  of  Hajji  Tarfa  to  examine  the  more  promi- 
nent mounds  in  the  south.  With  a  door-socket  of  Gimil- 
Sin  of  Ur  (about  2550  b.  c.)  picked  up  at  Muqayyar,  and 
with  another  of  the  same  monarch  and  a  whole  box  of  fine 
tablets,  through  a  fortunate  accident  discovered  at  Jokha  after 
a  little  scratching  of  the  surface,  thev  returned  to  the  north 
by  way  of  Samawa,  Nejef,  and  Kerbela,  reaching  Baghdad 
on  the  yth  of  June,  1890.  About  a  week  later  Peters 
was  on  his  way  to  the  Mediterranean  coast,  returning  to 
America  in  November,  while  Haynes  and  Noorian  left  the 
country  separately  by  different  routes  and  at  different  times 
in  the  course  of  the  same  year. 

'Third  Campaign^  i8gj-i8g6.  In  view  of  the  large  num- 
ber of  inscribed  objects  unearthed  by  him,  Peters  felt  greatly 
encouraged  as  to  future  explorations  at  Nuffar,  and  looked 
upon  his  method  of  excavating  in  a  somewhat  different  light 
from  that  in  which  it  has  been  viewed  by  others.  He  was  so 
much  pleased  with  the  tangible  results  which  he  had  to  show 
that  before  leaving  the  ruins  he  wrote  to  the  committee 
urging  early  resumption  of  the  work  under  Haynes  alone 
according  to  the  principles  laid  down  by  him.    As  the  two 


346  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

men  were  in  entire  accord  as  to  the  feasibility  of  such  a  plan/ 
and  as  two  members  of  the  committee  "  warmly  advocated 
it,"^  promising  to  work  towards  its  realization  if  the  Otto- 
man government  should  apportion  a  sufficient  number  of 
antiquities  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Dr.  Peters' 
methods  of  exploring  soon  had  another  chance  of  being 
tested  with  regard  to  their  actual  merits.  For  upon  the  re- 
commendation of  Hamdy  Bey,  who  had  not  forgotten  the 
extraordinarv  difficulties  and  losses  of  our  first  expedition 
and  the  praiseworthy  energy  and  perseverance  displayed 
by  the  second,  the  Sultan  presented  to  the  American  uni- 
versity all  those  tablets  and  archaeological  objects  not  required 
to  complete  the  collections  of  the  Imperial  Museum. 

As  soon  as  the  present  writer  had  sufficiently  recovered 
from  a  long  and  severe  illness  contracted  at  Nuffar,  which 
had  made  him  an  invalid  for  almost  a  year,  he  commenced 
the  study  of  the  newly  acquired  cuneiform  material  and 
reported  on  its  great  interest  and  value.  In  the  spring  of 
1892  the  committee  decided  upon  another  expedition,  the 
details  of  which  were  arranged  "at  a  meeting  in  Newport 
between  Dr.  Pepper,  Mr.  E.  W.  Clark,  Mr.  Haynes,  and 
Dr.  Peters."' 

The  last-mentioned  gentleman  "drew  up  with  Haynes  the 
plan  of  work,  and  drafted  general  instructions  for  the  con- 
duct of  the  excavations,"'"  while  it  was  left  to  Professor  Hil- 
precht  to  prepare  a  list  of  all  the  known  Babylonian  kings 
and  patesis  in  cuneiform  writing  with  an  accurate  reproduc- 
tion of  the  palaeographical  peculiarities  of  the  Nuffar  inscrip- 
tions, and  to  write  down  such  additional  hints  as  might 
enable  Haynes  to  find  and  to  identify  the  names  of  the 
principal  rulers  on  the  different  monuments. 

About  the  same  time  a  committee  on   publications  was 

^   Comp.  Peters'  own  story,  /.  c,  vol.  ii,  pp.  34.2,  seq. 

*  Comp.  Peters,  /.  c,  vol.  ii,  pp.  369,  seqq. 

*  Comp.  Peters,  /.  c,  vol.  ii,  p.  371. 


DURING   19 'K  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      347 

formed  with  Mr.  C.  H.  Clark  as  chairman,  and  H.  V.  Hil- 

precht  as  secretary  and  editor-in-chief.  On  the  basis  of  a  de- 
tailed plan  submitted  by  the  latter,  the  results  of  the  expedi- 
tions were  authorized  to  be  published  in  four  distinct  series. 
With  the  aid  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  the  first 
volume  of  Series  A  appeared  in  1893,  ^"^  ^  second  part 
in  1896,  while  two  years  later  (1898),  through  the  deep 
interest  of  a  public-spirited  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  Mr. 
Eckley  Coxe,  Jr.,  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  was  ena- 
bled to  issue  a  third  volume  under  its  own  name.^  As  the 
most  important  antiquities  had  remained  in  Constantinople, 
it  soon  became  necessary  for  the  committee  to  despatch  its 
editor  to  the  Turkish  capital  for  the  examination  of  those 
antiquities.  While  engaged  in  this  work,  in  1893,  ^^  ^^^ 
approached  by  the  administration  of  the  Imperial  Ottoman 
Museum  with  the  proposition  to  reorganize  its  Babylonian 
section  during  his  summer  vacations  in  the  course  of  the 
following  years.     He  accepted  the   honorable  task,^  but  in 

^  "The  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  edited 
by  H.  V.  Hilprecht,  Series  A  :  Cuneiform  Texts."  The  volumes  thus  tar 
published  are  vol.  i,  "Old  Babylonian  Inscriptions,  chiefly  from  Nippur," 
by  the  editor,  part  i,  1893,  part  2,  1896;  and  vol.  ix,  "Business  Docu- 
ments of  Murashu  Sons  of  Nippur,"  by  H.  V.  Hilprecht  and  A.  T.  Clay, 
1898.  Several  other  volumes  are  in  the  course  of  preparation.  A  more  rapid 
publication  was  hitherto  impossible,  owing  to  the  extraordinary  difficulties  con- 
nected with  the  deciphering  and  restoration  of  the  fragmentary  inscriptions 
(comp.  vol.  i,  part  2,  plates  36—49)  and  the  faithful  reproduction  of  all  their 
palaeographical  peculiarities  by  hand,  and  no  less  to  the  unusually  heavy  duties 
of  the  editor,  who  until  1899  was  without  an  assistant  in  his  manifold  labors 
as  academical  teacher  and  curator  of  two  museums,  not  to  mention  the  fact 
that  since  1893  he  had  to  work  almost  every  year  in  three  different  parts  ot 
the  world,  spending  part  of  his  time  in  America,  part  in  Constantinople,  and 
part  in  the  interior  of  Asia  Minor.  In  1899  Dr.  Clay  was  called  as  his 
assistant,  and  at  the  end  of  1 90 1  further  steps  were  taken  by  the  Board  of 
Trustees  and  the  Committee  of  the  Expedition  to  relieve  him  and  to  secure  his 
principal  time  for  the  scientific  study  and  publication  of  the  results  obtained  at 
NufFar. 

2  Comp.  pp.  69  and  below,  under  "  Turkish  Gleanings  at  Abu  Habba." 


348  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

declining  the  liberal  remuneration  offered,  asked  for  the 
favor  of  this  opportunity  to  show  his  personal  appreciation 
of  the  energetic  support  which  the  Ottoman  government 
had  granted  to  the  Philadelphia  expeditions.  With  especial 
gratitude  I  testify  here  also  to  the  extraordinary  help  which 
our  subsequent  scientific  missions  have  received  from  the 
same  government.  Thanks  to  the  gracious  personal  protec- 
tion which  His  Majesty  the  Sultan  henceforth  extended  to 
our  various  labors  in  his  domain,  and  to  the  lively  and  cor- 
dial interest  with  which,  his  ministers  and  the  two  directors 
of  the  Imperial  Museum  accompanied  the  progress  of  the 
work  in  Constantinople  and  at  Nuffar,  our  ways  were 
smoothed  everywhere  in  the  Ottoman  empire.  As  often  as 
I  needed  a  firman,  it  was  readily  granted,  while  besides,  His 
Majesty,  desiring  to  give  special  proof  of  his  personal  sat- 
isfaction with  the  confidence  thus  established  and  with  the 
services  rendered,  most  generously  and  repeatedly  bestowed 
magnificent  gifts  of  antiquities  upon  the  present  writer, 
which  subsequently  were  presented  to  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  making  the  scientific  value  of  its  Babylonian 
collections  not  only  equal  but  in  many  respects  superior  to 
those  of  the  British  Museum. 

On  August  28,  1892,  Haynes  left  America,  spending  the 
rest  of  the  year  in  Europe.  In  the  first  week  of  January, 
1893,  he  landed  at  Alexandretta  and  travelled  the  ordinary 
route  down  the  Euphrates  valley  to  Baghdad.  Towards  the 
middle  of  March  we  find  him  at  Hilla.  In  order  to  avoid 
the  territory  of  the  Sa'id  and  to  pay  a  brief  visit  to  the 
qaimmaqam  of  Diwaniye,  he  hired  three  large  native  boats 
{meshhufs)  and  sailed,  accompanied  by  thirty-five  skilled 
laborers  and  six  zabtiye,  who  were  to  remain  with  him, 
through  the  Daghara  canal  to  Siaq  el-'Afej.  Cordially  re- 
ceived by  Hajji  Tarfa,  to  whom  he  presented  a  gold  watch 
from  the  committee  in  recognition  of  his  past  services,  he 
appealed  again  to  him  for  protection  during  his  subsequent 


26 


\    X 


DURING   101 11   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      349 

Stay  at  the  ruins.  The  two  principal  shaikhs  of  the  Hamza, 
'Abud  el-Hamid  and  Hamid  el-Birjiid,  in  whose  territory 
the  mounds  of  Nuffar  are  situated,  were  summoned  to  the 
guest-chamber  {mudhif)  of  the  ruler  of  all  the  'Afej.  But 
having  carefully  laid  their  own  scheme,  through  which  they 
hoped  to  squeeze  the  largest  possible  revenues  out  of  the 
pockets  of  their  old  friends  from  beyond  "  the  great  upper 
sea  in  the  West,"  they  did  not  respond  very  eagerly  to  the 
call  of  the  messenger.  When  finally  they  appeared  in 
the  course  of  the  following  day,  both  declared  that  it  was 
utterly  impossible  to  guarantee  the  safety  of  the  expedition 
without  a  permanent  guard  of  forty  men  from  their  own 
tribes.  After  much  haggling  the  two  interested  parties 
agreed  upon  ten  Arabs  as  a  sufficient  number  to  insure  the 
welfare  of  Haynes  and  his  party.  Two  hours  later  the 
explorer  arrived  with  his  boats  at  Berdi's  old  village,  then 
governed  temporarily  by  the  latter's  younger  brother,  'Asi, 
with  whom  he  pitched  his  tents  for  a  few  days  until  he  had 
selected  a  suitable  site  for  his  own  camp  at  Nuffar. 

After  an  absence  of  nearly  three  years  he  walked,  on 
March  ao,  for  the  first  time  again  to  the  ruing,  a  mile  and 
a  half  from  'xlsi's  tower  and  reed  huts.  As  the  third  expe- 
dition was  expected  to  remain  considerably  longer  in  the 
field  than  either  of  the  two  previous  ones,  it  became  neces- 
sary to  erect  a  more  solid  structure  than  mere  tents  and 
sarifas^  a  building  which  should  afford  coolness  in  the  sum- 
mer, shelter  during  the  rainstorms,  and  protection  against 
fire  and  the  thievish  inclinations  of  the  Arabs.  In  the  plain 
to  the  south  of  the  ruins,  not  very  far  from  Peters'  last 
enclosure,  Haynes  marked  out  a  spot,  seventy  feet  long 
and  fifty  feet  wide,  on  which,  with  the  aid  of  his  men  from 
Hilla,  he  constructed  a  meftul  or  mud  house  with  sloping 
walls  and  without  external  windows.  By  the  middle  of 
April  the  primitive  but  comfortable  quarters  were  finished, 
combining  "  the  features  of  a  castle,  a  store-house  and  a 


350  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

dwelling  for  the  members  of  the  party."  And  it  was  "with 
a  perfect  delight  "  that  they  all  spent  the  first  night  within 
real  walls,  "  free  from  the  prying  crowds  of  curious  and 
covetous  idlers"  who  looked  upon  every  box  of  provisions 
as  being  filled  with  marvellous  treasures  of  gold  and  silver. 

About  the  same  time  (April  ii)  the  excavations  were 
started  in  the  enormous  ridge  which  stretches  along  the 
southwest  bank  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil  (VI-VIII  on  the  plan 
of  the  ruins,  p.  305),  not  only  because  it  was  nearest  to  the 
house,  but  because  a  large  number  of  tablets  had  been  dis- 
covered there  by  the  second  expedition.  In  accordance  with 
instructions  received  from  Philadelphia,  this  time  Haynes 
employed  only  a  maximum  force  of  fifty  to  sixty  laborers 
whom  he  could  control  without  difficulty.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances the  work  proceeded  naturally  much  more  slowly 
than  under  Peters.  Nevertheless  before  fifteen  weeks  were 
over  he  had  collected  nearly  eight  thousand  tablets  and 
fragments  from  his  various  shafts,  tunnels,  and  trenches.  But 
toward  the  end  of  August  the  inscribed  documents  began  to 
flow  less  abundantly,  so  that  he  regarded  it  best  to  transfer 
all  his  men  to  the  temple  mound,  which  he  explored  till  April 
4,  1894,  without  any  serious  interruption.  As  we  prefer  to 
consider  later  and  coherently  the  whole  archccological  work 
of  the  three  consecutive  years  which  Haynes  spent  in  Baby- 
lonia, we  confine  ourselves  at  present  to  a  brief  statement 
of  the  general  course  of  the  expedition  and  of  the  principal 
events  which  affected  the  life  and  efficiency  of  the  party 
during  its  long  sojourn  among  the  'Afej. 

At  the  beginning  of  1894  it  seemed  for  a  while  uncertain 
whether  the  home  committee  could  secure  the  necessary 
financial  support  to  authorize  the  continuation  of  the  Baby- 
lonian mission  for  another  year.  A  special  effort  was  there- 
fore made  by  several  of  its  members,  including  the  present 
writer,  to  raise  new  funds  which  should  enable  the  expedition 
to  remain  in  the  field  until  a  certain   task  had   been  accom- 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      351 

plished.  But  the  telegraph  wires  between  Constantinople  and 
Mosul  being  broken  for  almost  two  weeks,  Havnes  had  left 
the  mounds  with  about  fifty  large  cases  of  antiquities  (half 
of  them  containing  slipper-shaped  coffins  and  bricks),  before 
the  news  of  the  fortunate  turn  which  things  had  taken  in 
Philadelphia  could  reach  him.  On  June  4  he  was  back 
again  in  his  trenches  at  Nuffar.  During  the  few  intervening 
weeks  which  he  spent  at  Baghdad  he  had  met  a  young 
American,  Joseph  A.  Meyer,  a  graduate  student  in  the  de- 
partment of  architecture  at  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology,  Boston,  who  held  a  travelling  fellowship  for 
two  years  and  was  on  his  way  from  India  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean coast.  Beginning  to  realize  by  this  time  that  it  would 
be  impossible  for  him  to  excavate  the  temple  complex,  with 
its  many  complicated  problems,  without  the  constant  assist- 
ance of  a  trained  architect,  Haynes  readily  induced  Meyer 
to  change  his  plans  and  to  accompany  him  without  a  salary 
for  a  year  to  the  ruins  of  Nuffar. 

A  second  time  Providence  itself,  unwilling  to  see  the 
most  renowned  sanctuary  of  all  Babylonia  cut  up  and  grad- 
ually ruined  by  tunnels  and  perpendicular  shafts,  provided 
the  much  needed  specialist,  who  through  Peters'  unfortunate 
recommendation  had  been  withheld  so  long  from  the  expe- 
dition. Indeed,  the  young  architect  seemed  eminently  quali- 
fied for  the  peculiar  duties  required  of  him.  He  was  deeply 
interested  in  the  historical  branch  of  his  science ;  he  had 
gathered  considerable  practical  experience  through  his  study 
of  the  ancient  monuments  in  Europe,  Egypt,  Turkey  and 
India;  he  was  an  accurate  draughtsman  and  enthusiastically 
devoted  to  his  subject ;  and,  further  than  this,  he  proved  a 
genial  and  faithful  companion  to  Haynes,  who  after  his  last 
year's  isolation  from  all  educated  men  naturally  longed  for 
a  personal  exchange  of  thoughts  and  the  uplifting  association 
with  a  sympathetic  countryman,  to  whom  he  could  speak  in 
his  own  language.     The  influence  of  Meyer's  active  mind 


352  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

and  technical  knowledge  upon  the  work  at  NufFar  was  felt 
immediately.  Haynes'  reports,  previously  and  afterwards 
often  lacking  in  clearness  and  conciseness  and  devoted  more 
to  the  description  of  threatening  dangers,  illness  of  the  ser- 
vants, and  other  interesting  though  secondary  questions  than 
to  the  exposition  of  archsological  facts,  aimed  now  at  set- 
ting forth  the  characteristic  features  of  the  work  in  which  he 
was  engaged  and  at  illustrating  the  weekly  progress  of  the 
excavations  by  accompanying  measurements,  diagrams,  and 
drawings.  In  order  to  derive  the  greatest  benefit  for  the 
expedition  from  Meyer's  presence,  the  exploration  of  the 
temple  mound  was  made  the  principal  object  of  their  united 
efforts,  and  with  the  exception  of  a  few  weeks  in  September, 
all  the  laborers  were  concentrated  around  the  ziggurrat.  The 
trenches  grew  deeper  every  dav,  and  Ashurbanapal's  lofty 
terraces  rose  gradually  out  of  the  encumbering  mass  of  later 
additions.  The  hot  and  trying  Babylonian  summer,  more 
uncomfortable  and  inconvenient  than  dangerous  to  health, 
passed  by  without  any  noteworthy  incident.  But  when  the 
cooler  nights  indicated  the  approaching  fall  and  brought 
with  them  the  usual  colds  and  chills  frequently  complicated 
by  dysentery  and  malarial  poisoning  of  the  human  system, 
Meyer's  weakened  body  proved  unequal  to  the  demands 
made  upon  it. 

At  the  end  of  September  his  physical  powers  of  endur- 
ance gradually  gave  way.  For  seven  weeks  more  he  en- 
deavored hard  to  overcome  the  effects  of  the  malignant 
disease  and  remained  faithfully  at  his  post.  By  the  end  of 
November  his  condition  had  become  so  critical  that  not- 
withstanding the  extraordinary  hardships  of  the  journey,  it 
became  necessary  to  convey  him  by  boat  to  Hilla  and  from 
there  in  a  covered  litter  to  Baghdad.  But  his  case  was 
beyond  human  aid  long  before  he  left  NufFar.  On  De- 
cember 20,  1894,  he  died  in  the  house  of  Dr.  Sundberg, 
Haynes'  successor  as  United  States  consul  at  Baghdad,  like 


DURING  19 rn  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      353 

George  Smith  having  fallen  a  brave  soldier  in  the  cause  of 
science.  He  was  buried  in  the  little  European  cemetery 
of  the  city  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris.  In  the  course  of  time 
the  sandstorms  of 'Iraq  may  efface  his  solitary  grave.  But 
what  matters  it  ?  His  bones  rest  in  classic  soil,  where  the 
cradle  of  the  race  once  stood,  and  the  history  of  the  resur- 
rection of  ancient  Babylonia  will  not  omit  his  name  from 
its  pages. 

The  reaction  of  this  sudden  and  serious  loss  upon  the 
mind  and  activity  of  Haynes  was  soon  apparent.  He  was 
alone  once  more  on  the  vast  ruins  of  an  inhospitable  region, 
directing  his  workmen  in  the  trenches  by  day  and  develop- 
ing negatives  or  packing  antiquities  at  his  "  castle  "  in  the 
evening.  Feeling  his  inability  to  continue  the  exploration 
of  the  t-emple  mound  without  technical  advice  and  assistance, 
he  wisely  transferred  his  entire  force  to  the  southeastern 
extremity  of  the  previously  mentioned  ridge  on  the  other 
side  of  the  canal  (VI)  and  undertook  to  unearth  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  tablets  to  meet  Peters'  growing  demands  for 
inscribed  material.  He  was  successful  again  beyond  expec- 
tation. At  the  beginning  of  January,  1895,  he  had  gathered 
several  thousand  tablets  and  fragments  and  had  obtained  a 
fair  collection  of  pottery,  seal  cylinders,  domestic  imple- 
ments, and  personal  ornaments  mostly  found  in  the  loose 
earth  or  taken  from  graves  in  which  the  upper  twenty  feet 
of  rubbish  abound  everywhere  at  Nuffar.  But  unfortunately 
his  methods  of  excavating  and  his  weekly  reports  began  to 
show  the  same  deficiencies  which  characterized  them  before 
Meyer's  timely  arrival.  We  learn  from  them  little  beyond 
the  fact  that  a  larger  or  smaller  "  lot  of  tablets,"  enough  to 
fill  so  and  so  many  "  cases  of  the  usual  size,"  had  been  dis- 
covered. Here  and  there  an  especially  interesting  antiquity 
or  the  number  of  tombs  opened  and  the  coffins  prepared  for 
transport  are  mentioned.  Occasionally  we  even  meet  with 
some  such  statement  as  :  "In  nearlv  all  of  the  trenches  crude 


354  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

bricks,  eleven  inches  square  and  four  inches  thick,  occur. 
They  are  finely  modelled  bricks,  and  are  firm  and  solid,  as 
they  are  taken  from  their  walls.  They  are  the  prettiest 
crude  bricks  I  have  anywhere  seen."  But  we  look  in  vain 
for  an  attempt  to  describe  these  remarkable  walls,  to  trace 
their  course,  to  measure  their  dimensions,  to  draw  their 
ground  plan,  or  to  ascertain  the  prominent  features  and  ori- 
ginal purpose  of  the  rooms  and  houses  which  he  was  clear- 
ing all  the  while  of  their  contents. 

It  was  the  depressive  and  enervating  effect  of  the  solitude 
of  the  Babylonian  desert  and  marshes  which  began  seriously 
to  tell  upon  Haynes.  The  rapidly  growing  fear  of  con- 
stant danger  from  "  greedy  "  and  revengeful  Arabs,  which 
was  the  natural  outcome  of  the  former,  took  hold  of  him  in 
an  alarming  manner.  "  The  great  strain  of  maintaining 
security  of  life  and  property  is  a  weariness  to  the  flesh." 
"The  atmosphere  is  thickening  with  danger,  and  I  have 
been  compelled  to  appeal  to  the  governor  general  of  Bagh- 
dad for  protection."  "  I  am  getting  worn  out  with  the  very 
intensity  of  the  increasing  strain  and  struggle."  "  I  have 
never  seen  the  time  at  Nuffarwhen  the  danger  was  so  great 
as  it  is  in  these  wearisome  days  of  intrigue  and  fanaticism, 
of  murder  and  robbing."  These  are  only  a  few  of  the  sen- 
tences which  I  quote  from  as  many  different  letters  written 
in  February  and  March,  1895.  Three  years  later  Haynes 
viewed  the  conditions  around  Nuffar  more  calmly  and  in 
a  more  objective  light,  for  he  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment 
to  take  his  wife  among  the  same  Arabs.  And  it  is  a  remark- 
able fact,  deserving  special  notice,  that  in  all  the  ten  years 
during  which  the  expedition  has  owned  its  house  {me/tu/} 
at  the  edge  of  the  Babylonian  swamps,  no  attempt  has  ever 
been  made  to  open  its  door,  to  cut  a  hole  into  its  walls,  or 
to  steal  its  furniture  and  stores,  whether  the  building  was 
occupied  or  left  to  the  care  of  the  neighboring  tribes. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  excavations  carried  on  in  the 


DURING  19'rn  CENTURY :  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      355 

territory  of  the  warlike  *Afej  or  in  other  remote  districts  of 
'Iraq  el-'Arabi  are  even  to-day  beset  with  certain  dangers, 
for  the  greater  part  unknown  to  explorers  of  ruins  like 
Babylon,  Abu  Habba,  Tello,  and  others  which  are  situated 
near  the  caravan  road  or  larger  towns  protected  by  a  strong 
garrison.  The  experience  gathered  by  the  first  two  Phila- 
delphia expeditions,  and  the  stories  told  by  different  travel- 
lers who  visited  Nuffar  prove  it  sufficiently.  But  conditions 
have  considerably  changed  from  what  they  previously  were, 
and  every  year  the  feeling  of  the  Arabs  has  grown  more 
friendly  towards  us.  In  1894  Haynes  could  state  with 
great  satisfaction  that  the  entire  community  from  shaikh  to 
the  humblest  individual  openly  rejoiced  over  his  speedy 
return,  ascribing  the  copious  rains,  the  abundant  crops,  and 
all  other  blessings  to  his  presence  among  them.  Besides 
Hajji  Tarfa  himself,  the  powerful  and  renowned  chief  of  all 
the  'Afej,  had  guaranteed  the  safety  of  the  new  expedition. 
And  further  than  this,  the  two  principal  shaikhs  of  the 
Hamza  had  furnished  the  necessary  guards,  while  the  Otto- 
man government  had  stationed  six  zabtiye  at  the  mounds, 
ready  to  increase  their  number  at  any  time.  The  only  real 
cause  for  anxiety  was  our  blood-feud  with  the  Sa'id,  but  a 
pair  of  boots  and  a  bright-colored  garment  which  soon  after 
his  arrival  in  1893  Haynes  had  sent  as  a  present  to  their 
shaikh  Sigab  (generally  pronounced  Sugub),  had  been  favor- 
ably received  by  him,  and  seem  to  have  reconciled  his  tribes- 
men temporarily,  for  the  explorer  was  never  molested  by 
them  during  his  long  stav  at  Nuffar. 

And  yet  in  further  explanation  of  Haynes'  extraordinary 
state  of  nervousness,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  pe- 
culiar climate  and  the  frequent  unforeseen  disturbances  of 
the  country  where  conditions  and  persons  sometimes  change 
kaleidoscopically,  require  the  full  attention  of  every  foreigner 
at  all  times,  especially  when  he  is  alone,  as  Haynes  generally 
was  during  the  third  campaign.      In  the  first  summer  of  his 


356  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

long  stay  he  was  greatly  hampered  in  his  movements  through 
the  repeated  illness  of  his  servants,  while  at  the  same  time 
cholera  was  reported  to  be  advancing  from  Nasriye  and 
Hilla.  It  really  never  reached  the  camp,  but  the  mere  an- 
ticipation of  a  possible  outbreak  of  the  dreaded  disease 
weighed  heavily  upon  him.  Moreover,  the  Arabs  were  fre- 
quently on  the  war  path.  Sometimes  the  whole  region 
around  Daghara  and  Suq  el-'Afej  was  in  a  state  of  great  un- 
rest and  excitement,  no  less  than  fifteen  or  sixteen  petty  wars 
being  carried  on  between  the  various  tribes  within  one  year. 
One  day  the  'Afej  quarrelled  with  the  Elbuder,  who  lived  to 
the  south  of  the  swamps,  about  disputed  lands.  Another  time 
the  Hamza  were  at  loggerheads  with  Hajji  Tarfa  over  re- 
venues from  certain  rice  fields.  Then  again  the  former  fought 
with  the  Behahtha  on  some  other  matter.  And  at  the  be- 
ginning of  December,  1893,  when  the  capital  of  the  sanjak 
was  transferred  from  Hilla  to  Diwaniye,  to  protect  the  newly 
acquired  crown  property  of  the  Sultan  near  Daghara  and 
Suq  el-' Afej,  and  to  reduce  the  rebellious  'Afej  to  submis- 
sion, an  unusually  hot  battle  took  place  between  the  latter 
and  the  Behahtha,  in  which  seventy-one  warriors  were  slain. 
Though  the  sound  of  firing  could  often  be  heard  in  the 
trenches  of  Nuffar,  these  turmoils  never  threatened  the 
safety  of  the  expedition  in  a  serious  way,  and  they  affected 
its  efficiency  directlv  only  in  so  far  as  it  became  sometimes 
difficult  to  find  a  neutral  messenger  to  carry  the  weekly  mail 
through  the  infested  territory,  or  to  obtain  suitable  substi- 
tutes for  native  basket  men,  who  in  obedience  to  the  sum- 
mons of  their  shaikhs  would  suddenly  throw  down  their 
peaceful  implements,  seize  their  clubs  and  antiquated  match- 
locks, improvise  a  war-song,  and  with  loud  yells  run  away  to 
the  assistance  of  their  fighting  comrades. 

It  unfortunately  happened  also  that  in  the  years  1894  and 
1895  ^^^  '^^^j  swamps,  always  a  favorite  place  of  refuge, 
a  regular  land  of  Nod  (Gen.   4:  16),   for   dissatisfied  ele- 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      357 

ments  and  the  doubtful  characters  of  modern  Babylonia, 
harbored  a  famous  Kurdish  outlaw  and  bold  robber,  Captain 
{yus-bashi)  Ahmed  Bey,  a  deserter  from  the  Turkish  army, 
who  during  eighteen  months  terrorized  all  travellers  between 
Hilla  and  Baghdad  and  extended  his  unlawful  excursions 
even  to  the  districts  of  Kud(t)  el-'Amara  on  the  banks  of 
the  Tigris,  until  after  many  futile  efforts  on  the  part  of  the 
government  he  was  finally  captured  and  killed  by  an  Arab. 
In  order  to  prevent  any  combined  action  against  himself  by 
the  consuls,  he  had  been  very  careful  never  to  attack  any 
foreigner.  It  is  therefore  reasonably  certain  to  assume  that 
he  would  not  have  dared  to  molest  an  American  who,  more- 
over, was  the  especial  protege  and  guest  of  the  same  tribes 
with  whom  he  generally  hid  himself  and  his  plunder.  But 
troubled  in  mind  as  Haynes  was  in  those  days  by  the  weight 
of  responsibility  and  by  numerous  other  causes,  the  tempo- 
rary presence  of  the  Kurd  in  the  neighborhood  of  Nuffar 
increased  his  nervous  condition  and  sleeplessness  to  such  a 
degree  that  he  smelled  danger  and  complots  against  his 
life  everywhere,  and,  to  quote  his  own  words,  looked  upon 
"  every  bush  as  concealing  a  waiting  robber."  What  won- 
der that  under  these  circumstances  the  daily  petty  annoy- 
ances from  the  good-natured  and  hard-working  but  undis- 
plined  laborers,  who  frequently  behaved  more  like  a  crowd 
of  frolicsome  and  naughty  children  than  like  real  men, 
began  to  worry  him  beyond  measure  ;  that  their  occasional 
small  pilferings  of  seal  cylinders;  a  short-lived  and  almost 
ridiculous  strike  of  the  native  basketmen  misled  by  a  dis- 
loyal overseer  from  Jumjuma  ;  the  broken  leg  of  a  foreman 
injured  by  falling  bricks,  or  the  more  serious  sudden  cave- 
in  of  a  deep  undermined  trench  and  the  subsequent  death 
of  another  workman  —  occurrences  familiar  to  him  from  the 
previous  expeditions  —  should  in  his  mind  assume  an  im- 
portance entirely  out  of  proportion  to  their  real  signifi- 
cance. 


358  EXnORATIONS  IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

The  committee  at  home  was  not  slow  In  recognizing  the 
real  cause  of  this  growing  melancholy  on  the  part  of  its 
delegate  at  Nuffar,  and  the  detrimental  influence  which 
it  began  to  exercise  upon  the  work  of  the  archaeological 
mission  entrusted  to  him.  At  first  favorably  impressed 
with  the  contents  of  the  reports  and  the  character  of  the 
drawings  receiv^ed  during  the  six  months  of  Haynes'  and 
Meyer's  common  activity  on  the  ruins,  It  had  authorized 
the  two  explorers  to  continue  their  excavations  till  Febru- 
ary, 1896,  a  decision  which  was  in  entire  accord  with  the 
former's  frequently  expressed  personal  desire.  But  at  the 
end  of  March,  1895,  when  it  became  fully  aware  of  all 
the  details  which  threatened  to  undermine  the  health  of  its 
representative,  it  advised  him  by  cable  to  return  at  once 
to  America  for  rest,  and  to  resume  his  work  later.  How- 
ever, the  encouragement  drawn  from  the  committee's  sym- 
pathetic letters,  the  brief  visit  of  an  Englishman  returning 
from  India  to  London  by  w^ay  of  NufFar,  and  the  approach- 
ing spring  with  its  new  life  and  tonic  air  seem  to  have  re- 
vived Haynes'  depressed  spirits  so  completely  that  he  now 
viewed  the  danger  as  practically  over,  and  immediately  asked 
permission  to  remain  a  year  longer  among  the  'Afej,  at  the 
same  time  earnestly  pleading  for  a  postponement  of  the  an- 
nounced despatch  of  an  architect  until  another  expedition 
should  be  organized.  This  last-mentioned  recommendation, 
well  meant  as  it  doubtless  was,  could  not  be  received  favorably 
in  Philadelphia,  where  every  member  of  the  board  of  the 
expedition  by  that  time  understood  the  need  of  having  spe- 
cialists in  the  field  to  assist  Haynes.  Mr.  E.  W.  Clark  began 
to  take  matters  Into  his  own  hands,  and  a  sub-committee 
consisting  of  himself  and  the  present  writer,  later  increased 
by  the  addition  of  the  treasurer,  Mr.  John  Sparhawk,  Jr., 
was  appointed  to  engage  the  services  of  an  experienced 
architect,  and  to  devise  such  other  means  as  should  lead 
to   more  efficient  and  scientific  exploration  of  the  ruins  and 


DURING  lOTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND    BABYLONIA       359 

to  the  complete  success  of  the  expedition.  This  committee 
has  been  in  session  at  stated  times  until  the  present  day. 

In  the  meanwhile  Haynes  continued  to  deepen  his 
trenches  and  to  extend  his  tunnels  in  the  long  ridge  on 
the  west  side  of  the  ancient  canal  as  fast  as  he  could,  en- 
deavoring to  exhaust  the  supply  of  tablets  in  this  section 
sufficiently  to  create  the  general  impression  at  the  time  of 
his  departure  that  no  more  tablets  were  to  be  found  at 
NufFar.  For  the  constant  rumors  of  whole  donkey  loads 
of  tablets  passing  through  Suq  el-'Afej  ^  on  their  way  from 
Tello,  and  the  great  eagerness  with  which,  in  many  places, 
Arabs  had  abandoned  their  flocks  and  cultivation  for  the 
more  profitable  secret  diggings  at  De  Sarzec's  inexhaust- 
ible ruin,  where  the  business  archives  of  the  temple  had 
been  found  almost  intact,  foreshadowed  the  fate  of  every 
other  Babvlonian  ruin  upon  which  the  antiquity  dealers  of 
Hilla  and  Baghdad  might  cast  their  covetous  eyes.  By 
the  middle  of  July  the  proper  moment  seemed  to  have 
come  to  withdraw  all  the  workmen  from  those  attractive 
mounds  which  had  been  Haynes'  great  tablet  mine  in 
the  past,  yielding  him  nearly  nineteen  thousand  inscrip- 
tions in  the  course  of  the  third  expedition.  About  the 
sixth  part  of  these  documents  represents  complete  tablets, 
while  the  other  fifteen  thousand  are  more  or  less  damaged 
and  mutilated,  including  many  fragments  of  very  small  size. 

The  last  half  year  of  the  period  set  apart  for  the  explora- 
tion of  Nufi^ar  commenced.      It  was  devoted  almost  exclu- 

1  Before  the  Arabs  understood  the  full  value  of  these  treasures,  they  sold 
them  at  ridiculously  low  prices  to  the  dealers,  who  sometimes  made  5,000 
per  cent.,  and  even  considerably  more,  on  them.  According  to  exaggerated 
rumors,  a  woman  was  doing  the  marketing  for  her  tribesmen,  selling  the 
tablets  at  the  uniform  rate  of  a  gu/a  (a  round  boat)  full  for  one  Persian  krari, 
then  worth  about  two  and  a  half  Turkish  piastres,  or  eleven  cents  in  United 
States  currency.  This  clandestine  business  continued  at  Tello,  until  at  Hamdy 
Bey's  representation  the  government  ordered  the  <' tablet  mine"  to  be 
closed,  and  even  placed  a  temporary  guard  over  it. 


360  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

sivelv  to  an  examination  of  the  southeastern  part  of  Bint  el- 
Amir  (I).  Only  for  a  fortnight  in  the  middle  ot  the  summer 
Havnes  transferred  his  entire  force  in  the  morning  hours 
regularly  to  the  narrow  ridge,  of  mounds  (II-III)  which 
confine  the  large  open  space  to  the  northwest  of  the  zig- 
gurral,  in  order  to  determine  the  foundations  of  the  great 
wall  wherein  he  and  Meyer  in  the  previous  year  had  dis- 
covered crude  bricks  with  the  name  of  Naram-Sin.  Owing 
to  the  relative  height  of  the  stage-tower  and  the  enormous 
mass  of  Parthian  ruins  grouped  around  it,  and  no  less  owing 
to  Haynes'  peculiar  method  of  excavating  the  lowest  strata 
of  the  open  court  beneath  them,  it  became  more  and  more 
wearisome  for  the  basketmen  to  climb  the  rude  steps  and 
steep  roads  leading  from  the  interior  of  the  hollowed 
mound  to  the  dumping  places  on  the  top  of  the  neighbor- 
ing ruins.  The  photographs  of  the  indefatigable  explorer 
illustrated  his  remarkable  progress  in  clearing  the  lower 
temple  court  of  more  than  sixty  thousand  cubic  feet  of 
earth,  but  they  also  revealed  the  alarming  growth  of  import- 
ant unexplored  sections  of  the  adjoining  mounds^  These 
were  high  enough  in  themselves,  but  they  were  raised  fifty 
to  eighty  feet  higher  by  the  rubbish  deposited  on  them,  so 
that  their  future  excavation  threatened  to  become  a  serious 
problem  (comp.  the  frontispiece). 

After  many  fruitless  endeavors  the  committee  had  suc- 
ceeded in  despatching  two  young  Englishmen  to  Babylonia 
at  the  beginning  of  October.  They  had  served  for  a  little 
while  under  Flinders  Petrie  in  Egypt,  and  seemed  to  be 
fairly  well  prepared  for  the  more  difficult  labors  awaiting 
them  at  NufFar.  They  had  received  instructions  to  work 
several  weeks  under  Haynes,  until  they  were  generally  ac- 
quainted with  the  mounds,  the  history  of  our  past  excavations, 
the  country  and  the  manners  of  the  Arabs,  upon  whose  good 
will  the  success  of  the  expedition  largely  depended.  At  the 
same  time  our  representative  at  the  ruins  was  requested  to 


DURING  19™  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      361 

initiate  his  assistants  properly  into  their  various  duties, 
and  then  to  leave  them  in  charge  of  the  field,  and  to  return 
for  a  vacation  to  America,  until  the  time  should  have 
come  for  his  resumption  of  the  work  in  company  with  the 
two  Englishmen  and  such  other  assistants  as  the  committee 
might  deem  necessary  to  send  out  with  him.  In  consequence 
of  quarantine  and  other  delays,  the  two  substitutes  unfortu- 
nately did  not  arrive  at  NufFar  before  February,  1896,  about 
the  same  time  when  he  whom  they  were  expected  to  relieve 
had  planned  to  depart  from  the  country.  Much  to  our 
astonishment  and  regret,  Haynes  did  not  find  it  advisable 
to  execute  the  instructions  of  his  committee,  but  induced 
the  two  young  men,  after  they  had  spent  a  few  days  at  the 
ruins,  to  return  with  him  to  Europe,  as  he  regarded  it 
"  both  unwise  and  emphatically  unsafe  to  commit  the 
property  and  work  to  the  care  of  any  young  man  who  has 
not  had  a  long  experience  in  this  place,  and  with  this 
self-same  defiant,  covetous,  treacherous,  and  bloody  throng 
about  us." 

In  examining  Haynes'  three  years'  labors  with  regard  to  his 
methods,  discoveries  and  views  on  the  latter,  as  they  are  laid 
down  in  his  weekly  reports  to  the  committee  and  illustrated 
by  numerous  photographs  and  Meyer's  drawings,  we  must 
not  forget  that,  like  Peters,  he  was  no  expert  in  architec- 
ture, Assyriology,  or  archaeology,  and,  therefore,  could  furnish 
only  raw  material  for  the  use  of  the  specialist.  He  will  always 
deserve  great  credit  for  having  demonstrated  for  the  first  time, 
by  his  own  example,  that  it  is  possible  to  excavate  a  Babylo- 
nian ruin  even  during  the  hottest  part  of  the  year  without 
any  serious  danger  to  the  life  of  the  explorer.  With  an  inter- 
ruption of  but  two  months,  and  most  of  the  time  alone,  he 
spent  three  consecutive  years  "  near  the  insect-breeding  and 
pestiferous  ""Afej  swamps,  where  the  temperature  in  per- 
fect shade  rises  to  the  enormous  height  of  120°  Fahrenheit, 
and  the  stifling  sand-storms  from  the  desert  often  parch  the 


362  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

human  skin  with  the  heat  of  a  furnace,  while  the  ever-present 
insects  bite  and  sting  and  buzz  through  day  and  night." 
Surrounded  by  turbulent  tribes  and  fugitive  criminals,  he 
worked  steadfastly  and  patiently  towards  a  noble  aim ;  he 
even  clung  to  his  post  with  remarkable  tenacity  and  great 
self-denial  when  his  lonely  life  and  a  morbid  fear  of  real 
and  imagined  dangers  threatened  to  impair  his  health  and 
obscured  his  judgment.  But  on  the  other  hand,  he  also 
illustrated  anew  by  his  example  that  even  the  most  enthu- 
siastic explorer,  cautious  in  his  course  of  proceeding,  accus- 
tomed to  climate,  and  familiar  with  the  life  and  manners  of 
the  natives,  as  he  may  be,  is  plainly  unable  to  excavate  a 
Babylonian  ruin  satisfactorily  without  the  necessary  techni- 
cal knowledge  and  the  constant  advice  of  an  architect  and 
Assyriologist.  Haynes'  principal  mistake  lies  in  the  fact 
that,  in  accordance  with  Peters'  unfortunate  proposition,  he 
consented  to  imitate  the  latter's  example  with  regard  to  the 
methods  of  excavation,  and  to  dwell  and  to  dig  at  Nuffar 
alone  without  educated  technical  assistance  ;  and  furthermore 
that  when  the  committee  as  a  whole,  realizing  the  impos- 
sibilitv  of  such  an  undertaking,  called  him  home  or  proposed 
to  send  him  assistance,  he  preferred  to  remain  in  the  field 
and  declined  the  latter. 

According  to  the  manner  of  Rassam  and  Peters,  Haynes 
gathered  an  exceedingly  large  number  of  valuable  antiqui- 
ties, he  removed  an  enormous  mass  of  rubbish,  he  made  us 
acquainted  with  a  great  many  details  of  the  interior  of  the 
mounds,  he  worked  diligently  in  exposing  walls,  following 
drains  and  uncovering  platforms.  But  these  discoveries  re- 
mained isolated  and  incoherent.  It  was  frequently  impos- 
sible to  combine  them  and  to  obtain  even  a  moderately 
accurate  picture  of  the  temple  of  Bel  by  means  of  his  reports 
in  the  form  in  which   they  were  written.^     Often  unable  to 

1  At  the  time  these  reports  were  received,  it  was  naturally  understood  that 
they   were   only   preliminary   letters   written  under  peculiarly  trying   circum- 


Well  built  ot'  Bricks  and  Two  Teira-Cotta  Drains 
Descending  from  the  floor  of  a  Parthian  tomb 


27 


DURING  Wru  CENTUEY :  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      363 

distinguish  between  essentials  and  secondary  matters,  or 
failing  to  recognize  the  significance  of  certain  small  traces 
occurring  in  the  loose  debris  or  represented  by  fragmentary 
walls  which  are  of  paramount  importance  to  the  archee- 
ologist,  he  would  remove  them  without  attempting  to  give 
their  accurate  location  and  description,  and  occasionally 
allow  his  imagination  to  become  an  inadequate  substitute 
for  sober  facts  and  simple  measurements  by  feet  and  inches. 
In  consequence  of  these  peculiarities  his  reports  frequently 
enough  present  almost  as  many  puzzles  as  NufFar  itself,  and 
require  their  own  excavation,  through  which  the  original  de- 
tails furnished  by  the  trenches  scarcely  improve.  What  with 
Meyer's  aid  he  submitted  concerning  the  ziggurral  of  Ash- 
urbanapal,^  its  dimensions,  conduits,  etc.,  was  on  the  whole 
correct  and  in  many  ways  excellent.  It  showed  what  Haynes 
might  have  accomplished  in  addition  to  the  unearthing  of 
the  numerous  tablets,  sarcophagi,  drains,  and  walls  which  we 
owe  to  his  untiring  efforts,  had  he  been  assisted  properly. 
We  must  keep  this  in  mind  in  order  to  explain,  and  to  a 
certain  degree  excuse  his  methods  and  subsequent  one-sided 
results,  but  also  to  understand,  in  part  at  least,  why  the  pic- 
ture of  the  temple  of  Bel,  which  I  drew  in  1896  on  the  basis 

stances,  and  that  all  the  scientific  details  required  to  complete  them  would  be 
found  in  the  books  of  entry,  exhaustive  diaries  and  many  other  note-books,  as 
they  are  usually  kept  by  every  expedition.  It  became  apparent,  however,  in 
1 900,  that  no  such  books  existed,  and  that  these  weekly  or  fortnightly  letters 
represented  all  the  written  information  which  Havnes  had  to  give  on  his  long 
work  ot  three  years.  I  am  still  inclined  to  explain  this  strange  fact  to  a  certain 
degree  by  his  mental  depression  referred  to  above,  though,  to  mv  sincere 
regret,  the  words  of  praise  as  to  the  character  of  his  work,  so  liberally  ex- 
pressed in  my  introduction  to  "  The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the  Univ.  of  Pa.,"  series 
A,  vol.  i,  part  2  (Philadelphia,  1896),  pp.  16,  seqq.,  will  have  to  be  mod- 
ified considerablv. 

^  Not  of  Ur-Gur,  as  on  the  basis  of  Haynes'  reports  was  stated  in  my 
first  tentative  sketch  of  the  z.iggurrat,  "  The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the  Univ.  of 
Fa.,"  series  A,  vol.  i,  part  2,  pp.   16,  seqq. 


'*■ 


364  iJXrLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  his  reports,  is  inaccurate  and  differs  considerably  from 
what  1  have  to  present  below  after  my  personal  visit  to  the 
ruins  in  1900,  when  I  had  an  opportunity  to  study  the 
architectural  remains  as  far  as  they  were  still  preserved,  and 
to  submit  all  the  tunnels  and  trenches  of  my  predecessors 
to  a  critical  examination. 

As  indicated  above,  Haynes  excavated  chiefly  at  two 
places  during  his  long  stay  at  Nuffar,  devoting  about 
eighteen  months  to  Bint  el-Amir  (I),  which  represents  the 
ancient  ziggurraf,  and  twelve  to  the  long  furrowed  ridge 
situated  on  the  southwest  side  of  the  canal  and  defined 
by  the  numbers  VI  and  VIII  respectively  on  the  plan 
of  the  ruins  (comp.  p.  305),  while  two  to  three  months 
were  allowed  for  the  exploration  of  several  other  sections, 
including  a  search  for  the  original  bed  of  the  Shatt  en- 
Nil.  In  order  to  enable  the  reader  to  follow  his  work 
on  the  stage-tower  with  greater  facility,  I  shall  classify 
and  consider  it  in  the  following  order  :  a,  His  examina- 
/  tion  of  a  part  of  the  latest  constructions  ;  /?,  his  clearing  of 

the  stage-tower  of  Ashurbanapal ;  c,  his  excavation  of  three 
sections  on  the  southeast  court  of  the  ziggurrat  down  to  the 
water  level. 

^.  In  continuing  Peters'  work  on  the  temple  mound, 
Haynes  committed  the  same  grave  error,  to  start  with,  as 
the  first  director  of  the  expedition.  He  descended  to  the 
successive  Babylonian  strata  by  means  of  deep  shafts,  and 
cleared  important  sections  even  down  to  the  virgin  soil, 
before  the  uppermost  imposing  structure  had  been  exca- 
vated completely  and  methodically.  This  is  the  more  re- 
markable as  Haynes,  like  his  predecessor,  regarded  this 
gigantic  settlement  around  the  remodelled  ziggurrat  not  as 
an  entirely  new  Parthian  creation,  as  the  present  writer 
did,  but  as  the  latest  historical  development  of  the  famous 
sanctuary  of  Bel  at  the  time  of  "  the  second  Babylo- 
nian empire,"  or  about  the  period  600-550  b.  c,  —  reason 


Perpendicular  Drain  composed  ot  Jars.      About  200  b.  c. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      365 

enough  to  treat  it  with  special  reverence  and  to  examine 
it  with  the  greatest  care.  In  consequence  of  his  strange 
procedure  he  could  not  help  destroying  essential  details 
of  all  the  different  strata  which  later  were  missing,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  report  other  discoveries  inaccurately  and 
incoherently.  It  became,  therefore,  exceedingly  difficult, 
and  in  many  cases  impossible,  for  me  to  determine  and  to 
arrange  the  defective  results  of  all  these  perpendicular  cut- 
tings, with  their  eight  to  ten  different  strata,  in  a  satisfactory 
manner,  the  more  so  as  they  often  had  been  obtained  at 
long  intervals,  and  as  a  rule  were  unaccompanied  by  even 
the  poorest  kind  of  sketch  or  ground  plan,  while  the  port- 
able antiquities  had  never  been  numbered  to  allow  of  their 
identification  with  certainty  afterwards. 

In  spite  of  the  plainly  un-Babylonian  character  of  the 
large  crude  bricks  which  constitute  the  bulk  of  the  latest 
fortified  walls  around  the  ziggurraf,  Haynes  regarded  them 
with  Peters  as  the  work  of  Ur-Gur,  differing,  however, 
from  him  in  one  important  point,  by  declaring  at  least  a 
large  part  of  the  southeast  enclosing  wall  as  the  work  "  of 
the  first  rebuilder  of  the  ziggurrat  in  cruciform  style  [about 
600  B.  c.]."  He  removed  a  number  of  rooms  in  the  east 
corner  of  this  settlement,  and  as  Meyer  fortunately  was 
on  the  ground  a  few  months  later,  we  have  a  well  executed 
plan  of  these  chambers  in  addition  to  a  few  sketches  and  a 
general  description  of  their  principal  features  and  contents 
by  Haynes.  The  two  explorers  came  to  the  interesting 
conclusion,  confirmed  later  by  my  inspection  of  the  few  re- 
mains of  their  trenches,  that  three  different  periods  are  clearly 
to  be  distinguished  with  regard  to  their  occupancy.  They 
also  make  us  acquainted  with  the  exact  dimensions  of  these 
rooms  and  their  mutual  relation  to  each  other,  with  the 
average  thickness  and  height  of  their  ruined  walls,  with  certain 
important  details  of  their  doors,  with  their  drainage  and  venti- 
lation and  several  fireplaces  discovered  in  them.   Apart  from 


366  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

a  few  stray  Babylonian  antiquities  which  later  may  have  been 
used  again,  all  the  typical  objects  gathered  in  these  rooms 
are  decidedly  later  than  300  b.  c,  as  I  convinced  myself  by  a 
careful  investigation.  Among  the  objects  betraying  an  un- 
doubtedly Greek  influence  I  only  mention  several  fragments 
of  a  cornice  in  limestone  representing  the  vine-branch,  well 
known  from  the  so-called  sarcophagus  of  Alexander  the 
Great,  and  the  stamped  handle  of  a  Rhodian  amphora  bear- 
ing the  inscription  EHI  0EAIAHTOT  BATPOMIOT,  /.  e., 
"  [this  amphora  was  made  or  gauged]  under  [the  epony- 
mous magistrate]  Theaidetos  in  [the  month  of]  Badro- 
mios."^  According  to  Professor  Furtwangler  of  Munich, 
to  whom  I  submitted  a  photograph  of  the  last  mentioned 
antiquity,  this  magistrate  is  known  from  other  similar 
handles  found  on  the  isle  of  Rhodes  itself,'  and  must  have 
lived  in  the  second  or  first  century  preceding  our  era.  The 
same  scholar  confirmed  my  conclusions  with  regard  to  the 
age  of  the  characteristic  terra-cotta  figurines  previously 
described  (comp.  pp.  330,  seq.),  which  I  had  unhesitatingly 
assigned  to  the  Parthian,  /.  e.y  the  Hellenistic  and  Roman 
periods. 

The  removal  of  the  enormous  mass  of  crude  bricks  with 
which  the  builders  of  this  latest  settlement  had  covered, 
changed,  and  enlarged  the  old  stage-tower  of  Bel  was  a 
slow  and  tedious  task.  But  it  was  not  without  interesting 
results.  Babylonian  antiquities  of  the  Cassite,  and  even 
much  earlier  times,  were  repeatedly  discovered  inside  these 
bricks.  Their  comparatively  fine  state  of  preservation,  their 
frequent  occurrence,  and,  in  a  few  cases,  their  large  size, 
proved  sufficiently  that  they  had  not  gotten  accidentally 
into  these  walls,  while  the  long  period  of  about  two  thousand 

1  The  T  in  the  name  of  the  month  as  offered  by  the  inscription  is  a  mistake 
of  the  scribe,  as  Furtwangler  informs  me. 

2  Comp.  Hillerde  Gaertringen,  Inscriptinnn  Gr  a  cte  insular  urn  Rhodt,  etc., 
1895,  No.   1135. 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      367 

years  represented  by  them,  their  character  and  their  inscrip- 
tions, indicated  in  some  manner  how  and  where  they  had 
been  obtained.  Most  of  them  came  from  the  temple  com- 
plex, where  they  had  been  found  when  the  ground  was  lev- 
elled and  important  early  structures  destroyed  to  furnish 
welcome  building  material  for  the  later  descendants  of  the 
ancient  population.  All  the  objects  unearthed  had  been 
gathered  scrupulously,  for  they  were  no  less  valued  in  those 
days  than  they  are  to-day  by  the  modern  inhabitants  of  the 
country.  They  were  either  sold  as  raw  material  to  engravers 
and  jewellers  (comp.  p.  22)S)i  °^  worn  as  personal  orna- 
ments, or  converted  into  useful  household  implements, 
or  used  as  talismans  which  protected  the  living  and  the 
dead  alike  against  the  evil  influence  of  demons.  We 
found  inscribed  tablets,  seal  cylinders,  and  other  Babylonian 
antiquities  of  the  most  different  periods  very  commonly  in 
and  around  the  Parthian  and  Sassanian  urns,  coffins  and 
tombs  of  Nuffar.  These  discoveries  ofttimes  led  Peters 
and  Haynes  astray  in  their  efforts  to  prove  the  Babylonian 
character  of  these  burials  and  to  support  their  startling  theo- 
ries concerning  the  age  and  the  different  types  of  ancient  pot- 
tery. But  they  also  occur  in  platforms,  under  thresholds,  in 
the  foundations  of  houses,  inside  numerous  bricks,  as  stated 
above,  and  for  very  simple  reasons,  especially  frequently  in 
the  mortar  uniting  the  latter.  No  wonder  that  Haynes  dis- 
covered them  in  considerable  quantities  in  the  clay  mortar 
of  the  fortified  palace  which  rests  on  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
temple,  thereby  unconsciously  establishing  an  exact  parallel 
to  De  Sarzec's  results  in  the  upper  strata  of  the  temple 
mound  at  Tello  (comp.  pp.  iid^seqq.^  particularly  pp.  232, 
seq.)^  and  at  the  same  time  providing  further  evidence  against 
his  own  personal  view  of  the  signification  of  these  antiquities. 
In  addition  to  their  talismanic  character  many  of  the  ob- 
jects deposited  seem  to  have  carried  with  them  the  idea  of  a 
sacrifice  or  an  act  of  devotion  on  the  part  of  their  donors  to 


368  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

secure  greater  stability  for  this  public  building,  to  express 
gratitude  for  an  unknown  successful  transaction,  or  to  obtain 
the  favor  of  the  gods  for  the  fulfilment  of  a  certain  desire. 
In  the  light  of  such  votive  offerings  1  view  a  collection  of 
antiquities  discovered  together  in  the  foundation  of  the  latest 
southeast  enclosing  wall  and  comprising  a  Persian  seal, 
a  Babylonian  seal  cylinder,  a  pair  of  silver  earrings,  eleven 
pieces  of  corroded  silver,  about  forty  silver  beads  and  three 
hundred  odd  stone  beads,  which  apparently  represent  the 
gift  of  a  woman  ;  or  the  goose-egg  with  its  undeveloped 
germ  of  life  to  be  sacrificed  (comp.  p.  ^i,^)^^  ^^""^^  above  all, 
a  surprising  find  which  was  made  on  the  northwestern  side  of 
the  ziggurrat.  Imbedded  in  the  mortar  of  clay  and  straw 
that  filled  a  large  space  between  Ashurbanapal's  stage-tower 
and  its  later  addition  Haynes  uncovered  three  human  skulls 
placed  on  the  same  level  at  nearly  equal  distances  from  each 
other.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  we  here  have  an  authen- 
tic example  of  the  practice  of  bloody  sacrifices  offered  in 
connection  with  the  construction  of  important  new  buildings, 
—  a  practice  widely  existing  in  the  ancient  world  and  pre- 
vailing even  to-day  in  several  parts  of  the  Orient." 

b.  The  labor  that  would  have  been  required  to  clear  the 
original  Babylonian  stage-tower  entirely  of  the  later  addi- 
tions will  be  easily  understood  by  considering  that  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  cubic  feet  of  tenacious  lib[e)n, 
or  mud  bricks,  and  other  accumulated  rubbish  had  to  be 
removed  before  only  one  of  the  four  huge  arms  which  pro- 
ceeded from  the  centres  of  the  four  sides  of  the  ancient 
ziggurrat  far  into  the  court  had  disappeared, —  a  fact  suffi- 
ciently illustrating  the  remarkable  power  and  energy  of  these 

^  Peters,  failing  to  recognize  the  meaning  of  this  class  of  antiquities,  comes 
to  the  remarkable  conclusion  (/.  c,  vol.  ii.,  p.  123),  that  "some  humorous 
or  mischievous  workman  had  walled  it  in  two  thousand  years  or  so  ago." 

^  Comp.  H.  Clay  Trumbull,  "  The  Blood  Covenant,"  2d  edition,  Phila- 
delphia, 1893,  and   "  TheThreshold  Covenant,"  New  York,  1896. 


Northwestern  Facade  of  the  Ziggurrat  as  restored  by  Ashurbanapal  about  650  b.  c. 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      369 

Parthian  rulers,  who  were  able  to  erect  similar  castles  on  the 
top  of  most  of  the  large  temple  ruins  in  the  country.  In 
view  of  the  great  difficulties  in  his  way,  Haynes  confined 
himself  to  a  complete  removal  of  the  southeastern  wing,  cut- 
ting away  only  so  much  of  the  other  three  arms  as  was  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  disengage  the  earlier  building  from  its 
surrounding  brickwork  by  means  of  narrow  perpendicular 
trenches.  Applied  to  the  huge  massive  lateral  arms  alone, 
this  method  was  doubtless  correct,  as  it  saved  considerable 
time  and  expense,  and  did  not  deprive  us  of  any  essential 
knowledge  for  the  time  being.  But  as  soon  as  it  was 
carried  further  than  this  it  became  incompatible  with  a  sys- 
tematic investigation  of  the  entire  mound.  These  dimly 
lighted  narrow  corridors  prevented  the  photographing  of 
important  details  of  the  lowest  story  of  the  stage-tower, 
while  at  the  same  time  they  gave  cause  for  Haynes'  further 
descent  into  the  depth,  before  the  rest  of  the  sacred  enclo- 
sure had  received  proper  attention.  Consequently  it  was 
impossible  until  very  recently  to  determine  the  precise  rela- 
tion of  the  ziggiirrat  to  the  temple  with  which  it  formed  an 
organic  whole,  or  even  to  find  out  what  the  entire  court 
around  the  former  looked  like  at  any  given  period  of  its 
long  and  varied  history.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  following 
picture  presented  itself  to  me  upon  my  arrival  at  Nuffar  in 
1900.  The  crumbling  remains  of  t\it  ziggurrat  had  been 
exposed  to  the  level  of  the  period  of  Kadashman-Turgu, 
large  sections  in  its  neighborhood  were  explored  only  to 
the  level  of  the  Parthian  fortress,  others  had  not  been 
touched  at  all,  again  others  were  cleared  to  the  platform  of 
Ur-Gur,  still  others  down  to  the  upper  Pre-Sargonic  re- 
mains, while  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  large  place  in 
front  of  the  stage-tower,  which  contained  a  number  of  brick 
pavements,  serving  as  an  excellent  means  for  dating  the  dif- 
ferent strata  of  the  whole  enclosure,  had  been  excavated 
down  to  the  virgin  soil  (comp.  frontispiece).    At  one  time 


370  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Haynes  himself  very  keenly  tclt  the  unsatisfactory  manner 
in  which  he  was  proceeding.  For  in  one  of  his  reports  of 
1894,  written  during  Meyer's  presence  at  the  ruins,  we  read 
the  significant  passage  :  "  I  should  like  to  see  systematic 
excavations  undertaken  on  this  temple  enclosure,  not  to  be 
excavated  section  by  section,  but  carried  down  as  a  whole, 
to  distinguish  the  different  epochs  of  its  history,  each  well 
defined  level  to  be  thoroughly  explored,  sketched,  photo- 
graphed, and  described,  before  the  excavation  of  any  part 
should  be  carried  to  a  lower  level.  This  method  would 
be  more  satisfactory  and  less  likely  to  lead  to  confusion 
of  strata  and  levels."  We  naturally  ask  in  amazement  : 
Though  knowing  the  better  method,  why  did  he  never 
adopt  it  at  a  time  when  he  was  in  complete  charge  ot  the 
expedition  in  the  field,  and  the  committee  at  home  ready 
to  support  him  with  all  the  necessary  technical  assistance  ? 
In  tracing  the  upper  stages  of  the  ziggurrafy  Haynes  dis- 
covered the  fragment  of  a  barrel  cylinder  inscribed  with  the 
cuneiform  signs  characteristic  of  the  period  of  the  last  great 
Assyrian  kings  (722-626  b.  c).  It  belonged  to  Sargon  or 
Ashurbanapal,  both  of  whom  took  part  in  restoring  the 
temple  of  Bel.  Small  as  it  was,  it  proved  that  documents 
of  this  kind  once  existed  at  Nuffar,  as  they  did  in  other 
Babylonian  stage-towers.  But  in  order  to  determine  the 
number  and  size  of  the  upper  stories,  which  no  longer  had 
facing  walls  of  baked  brick,  the  explorer  had  to  proceed 
from  the  better-preserved  lowest  one.  For  the  later  occu- 
pants of  the  temple  mound,  while  utilizing  all  the  other 
baked  material  of  the  older  building  for  their  own  pur- 
poses, had  evidently  been  obliged  to  leave  the  panelled 
walls  of  baked  bricks  in  the  lowest  story  standing  in  order 
to  prevent  the  gradual  collapse  ot  the  heavy  mass  above 
it.  More  than  this,  they  had  trimmed  its  corners  and  re- 
paired other  defective  places,  as  could  easily  be  recognized 
from  the  bricks  there  employed  and  their  use  of  clay  mortar 


DURING  19™  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      371 

instead  of  bitumen,  the  common  binding  material  of  all  the 
baked  bricks  of  the  ziggurrat  found  still  in  situ.  This  cir- 
cumstance explains  why  even  the  lowest  stage  of  the  tower 
yielded  us  no  building  records,  though  Haynes  continued 
to  search  tor  them. 

Most  of  the  stamped  bricks  taken  from  this  story  bore 
the  Old  Babylonian  inscription  :  "  To  Bel,  the  king  of  the 
lands,  his  king,  Ashurbanapal,  his  favorite  shepherd,  the 
powerful  king,  king  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  earth,  built 
Ekur,  his  beloved  temple,  with  baked  bricks."  Inter- 
mingled with  them  were  bricks  of  Kadashman-Turgu  (about 
1300  B.  c.)  and  Ur-Gur  (about  2700  b.  c),  the  latter's  name 
occurring  in  the  lowest  courses  frequently  to  the  exclusion 
of  all  others.  It  was  therefore  clear  that  each  subsequent 
restorer  of  the  tower  had  made  extensive  use  of  the  material 
of  his  predecessors,  thereby  enabling  us  to  fix  at  least  the 
principal  periods  of  this  monumental  structure.  But  some 
of  the  roval  builders  had  not  been  satisfied  with  a  mere  re- 
pairing of  cracks  and  replacing  of  walls;  they  at  the  same 
time  had  enlarged  the  original  size  of  the  tower.  This  fact 
was  disclosed  bv  a  trench  cut  into  the  northeast  face  of  the 
ziggurrat,  where  Havnes  discovered  the  fragmentary  re- 
mains of  Ur-Gur's  casing  wall  six  feet  behind  the  outside 
of  Ashurbanapal's.  The  southeast  fa9ade  alone  seems  to 
have  remained  unchanged  for  more  than  two  thousand 
years  ;  for  all  the  inscribed  bricks  removed  from  this  neigh- 
borhood exhibited  the  name  of  the  ancient  king  of  Ur  on 
their  lower  faces,  a  sure  indication  that  they  were  still  in  their 
original  position.  What  is  the  reason  for  the  unique  pre- 
servation of  this  particular  side  during  such  a  long  period  ? 
Two  almost  parallel  walls,  constructed  by  the  same  mon- 
arch and  running  at  right  angles  from  the  southeast  face 
of  the  ziggurrat  into  the  large  open  court,  acted  as  a  kind 
of  buttress  and  prevented  an  uneven  settling  of  the  pon- 
derous mass  behind    and    above  it.      But  this  was  not  their 


372  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

original  and  chief  purpose.  Certain  projections  of  the  sec- 
ond stage  over  this  so-called  causeway/  which  are  absent 
from  the  other  three  sides  of  the  pyramid,  proye  conclu- 
sively that  here  we  have  the  last  remains  of  the  ancient  ap- 
proach to  the  top  of  the  ziggurrat.  A  door-socket  in  dolerite 
inscribed  with  the  ordinary  votive  legend  of  Ur-Gur  was 
found  at  the  foot  of  this  stairway,  while  a  stray  soapstone 
tablet  of  the  same  king  came  from  a  room  of  the  Parthian 
fortress  considerably  above  it. 

The  excavation  of  the  southwest  and  northeast  fa9ades 
were  no  less  important  for  our  knowledge  of  the  architectu- 
ral details  of  the  ziggurrat.  Both  contained  deep  and  well- 
built  conduits  in  their  centres,  designed  to  carry  the  profuse 
water  of  the  Babylonian  autumn  and  winter  rains  from  the 
higher  stories  over  the  foundations  of  the  lowest  encasement 
walls  into  a  gutter  which  surrounded  all  but  the  front  sides 
of  the  high-towering  building.  Loftus'  so-called  "  but- 
tresses "  of  the  Buweriye  at  Warka,  "  erected  on  the  centre 
of  each  side  for  the  purpose  of  supporting  the  main  edi- 
fice "  (comp.  p.  146,  above),  are  evidently  nothing  but  such 
water  conduits,  misunderstood  by  him,  and  the  remains  of 
an  entrance  to  the  top  of  the  tower.  If  we  can  rely  upon 
Haynes'  examination,  the  southwest  conduit  was  the  ex- 
clusive work  of  Ur-Gur,  except  at  the  bottom,  where  it  had 
repeatedly  been  filled  and  paved  to  discharge  the  water  at  a 
higher  level  in  accordance  with  the  gradual  rising  of  the 
court  below.  The  northeast  conduit,  on  the  other  hand, 
goes  back  only  to  Ashurbanapal,  who  repaired  the  conduit 
of  Kadashman-Turgu,  placed  over  the  older  one  of  Ur- 
Gur. 

^  Haynes  did  not  recognize  the  significance  of  these  projections  for  the 
whole  question  of  the  original  ascent,  but,  substituting  his  lively  fantasy  again 
for  an  accurate  description,  imagines  that  "  a  sacred  shrine  or  altar  may  have 
stood  at  the  far  end  of  the  causeway,"  or  "  that  the  officiating  priest  may  at 
times  have  harangued  the  people  in  the  great  court  below  him  from  that 
height."      What  a  conception  of  a  Babylonian  temple  ! 


Water  Conduit  built  by  King  Ur-Gur,  2700  b.  c. 
In  the  southivestern  facade  of  the  ziggurrat 


28 


DURING   lOni  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      373 

It  is  Haynes'  view,  as  reproduced  by  me  in  1896,  that, 
with  the  exception  of  the  lowest  front  face  and  the  two  con- 
duits, Ur-Gur's  ziggurrat  was  built  entirely  of  crude  bricks, 
and  that  even  at  the  time  of  the  Cassite  and  Assyrian  occu- 
pations the  upper  stories  had  no  casing  walls  of  baked 
bricks.  This  theory  seems  to  me  untenable.  For  there 
are  many  indications  which  necessarily  lead  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  whole  pyramid,  from  the  time  of  Ur-Gur  down 
to  Ashurbanapal,  was  properly  protected.  I  cannot  go  into 
details  here.  To  mention  only  one  circumstance,  it  would  be 
impossible  to  explain  the  presence  of  so  many  stamped 
bricks  of  Ur-Gur,  found  out  of  their  original  position  every- 
where in  the  ruins  of  Nuffar,  except  on  the  assumption 
of  a  casing  wall  for  every  stage  of  the  ziggurrat.  It  was 
only  natural  that  the  bricks  of  the  earlier  builders  should 
be  removed  by  the  later  monarchs  before  they  repaired  and 
enlarged  the  temple.  But  the  very  fact  that  the  material 
of  Ashurbanapal's  casing  walls  of  the  lowest  story  con- 
sists largely  of  bricks  of  Ur-Gur  and  Kadashman-Turgu, 
and  that  the  construction  of  the  Seleucido-Parthian  rulers 
contained  a  great  number  of  stamped  and  unstamped  bricks 
of  all  the  three  Babylonian  kings  mentioned,  is  alone  suffi- 
cient evidence  to  demonstrate  that  the  entire  outside  of  the 
ziggurrat  must  have  been  built  of  baked  bricks. 

While  working  towards  the  second  stage  from  the  upper 
edge  of  the  lowest  story,  Haynes  discovered  the  open- 
ing of  a  large  well  in  the  centre  of  its  northeast  fa9ade  and 
partly  overlapping  the  ancient  conduit.  It  was  built  of 
baked  bricks,  and  descended  through  the  crude  mass  of  the 
stage-tower  down  to  the  water  level.  Though  unable  to 
determine  its  age  and  special  purpose  at  this  remarkable 
place,  Haynes  was  inclined  to  ascribe  it  to  Ashurbanapal. 
But  this  is  impossible.  In  connection  with  my  subsequent 
visit  to  the  ruins,  I  could  p'"ove  conclusively  that  this  well 
did  not  belong  to  the  ziggurrat  proper,  but  was  constructed 


374  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  Kadashman-Turgu's  and  Ashurbanapal's  material  by  the 
Seleucido-Parthian  princes,  who  selected  this  peculiar  place 
in  order  to  obtain  the  coolest  water  possible  and  to  secure 
its  supply  for  the  highest  part  of  their  castle,  even  in  case 
the  lower  palace  should  have  been  taken  by  an  enemy. 

A  word  remains  to  be  said  about  the  interior  and  the 
upper  stages  of  the  ziggurrat.  The  large  body  of  the  high- 
towering  building  consisted  of  crude  bricks  nine  by  six  by 
three  inches  in  size.  They  represent  the  standard  dimen- 
sion of  Ur-Gur's  material,  but  they  were  already  in  use 
before  his  time.  For  bricks  of  the  same  size  and  form,  but 
different  in  color  (the  latter  being  yellowish,  the  former 
gray),  were  discovered  in  the  lower  courses  of  the  interior 
of  the  ziggurrat} 

Apart  from  the  unusually  large  adobes  employed  by  the 
Parthian  builders  and  completely  covering  and  embedding 
the  ancient  stage-tower,  there  is  only  one  other  kind  of 
crude  bricks  traceable  in  its  upper  part,  which  may  belong 
to  one  of  the  Cassite  rulers  or  to  Ashurbanapal.  This  fact 
will  scarcely  surprise  us,  since  little  is  left  of  the  higher 
stages  of  the  ziggurrat.  We  can  state  with  certainty  only 
that  Haynes  found  considerable  remains  of  a  sloping  second 
terrace,  largely  ruined  in  the  centre  of  its  southwest  and 
northeast  facades,  where  apparently  water  conduits,  similar 
to  those  of  the  first  story,  previously  existed,  and  that  he 
believes  himself  to  have  discovered  faint  traces  of  a  third 
storv.  The  amount  of  rubbish  accumulated  on  the  top  of 
the  second  stage  is  comparatively  small.  But  this  circum- 
stance does  not  constitute  an  argument  against  the  assump- 
tion of  more  than  three  stages.  It  only  testifies  to  the  rapid 
disintegration  of  crude  bricks  after  they  had  been  exposed 
to  the  combined  action  of  heavy  rains  and  extraordinary  heat, 
and  to  the  remarkable  changes  which  the  ziggurrat  under- 

^  Comp.  what  is  said  below,  p.  390,  in  connection  with  the  two  treasury 
vaults  opening  into  the  pavements  of  Ur-Gur  and  Naram-Sin. 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      375 

went  at  the  hands  of  the  occupants  of  the  latest  castle,  who 
practically  turned  the  Babylonian  ruin  into  a  huge  cruciform 
terrace  with  an  additional  central  elevation  or  watch-tower. 

c.  The  excavation  of  the  southeast  court  of  the  ziggurrat 
forms  the  most  interesting  though  the  most  pernicious  part 
of  Haynes'  work  on  the  temple  of  Bel.  He  accomplished 
it  in  his  own  manner  during  the  last  half  year  of  his  stay  at 
the  ruins  by  dividing  the  whole  space  into  four  sections 
and  clearing  three  of  them  by  as  many  large  perpendicular 
shafts  from  the  walls  of  the  Parthian  rooms  down  to  the 
virgin  soil.  The  fourth  had  been  excavated  only  to  the 
brick  pavement  of  Ashurbanapal,  when  he  departed  from 
Nuffar  on  February  19,  1896.  Whatever  seemed  impor- 
tant enough  at  the  different  altitudes,  he  left  standing, 
supporting  the  uncovered  remains  of  the  past  by  solid  pil- 
lars of  earth,  or  by  artificial  arches  cut  out  of  the  rubbish 
below  them.  In  consequence  of  this  unique  method  of 
operation,  the  southeast  section  of  the  temple  court,  as  seen 
in  the  frontispiece,  looks  as  picturesque  and  attractive  as 
possible,  while  in  reality  it  presents  a  picture  of  utter  con- 
fusion and  devastation  to  the  archaeologist.  In  sketching 
Haynes'  work,  therefore,  I  can  only  attempt  to  set  forth 
certain  striking  features  of  the  different  strata  which  I  have 
been  able  to  develop  out  of  his  incoherent  and  frequently 
contradictory  reports,  and  to  give  a  brief  description  of  some 
of  the  more  important  antiquities  discovered  by  him.  For 
the  sake  of  greater  clearness  we  take  a  pavement  of  Sargon 
and  Naram-Sin,  which  extends  through  a  considerable  part 
of  the  mound,  as  a  dividing  line,  and  examine  the  ruins 
which  lie  above  it  first,  and  afterwards  those  which  were 
hidden  below  it. 

I.  Post-Sargonic  Ruins.  The  rubbish  which  filled  the 
court  between  the  platform  just  mentioned  and  the  bot- 
tom of  the  stratum  of  well-packed  earth,  prepared  by  the 
Seleucido-Parthian  princes  as  a  foundation  for  their  fortified 


376  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

palace,  was  about  sixteen  to  seventeen  feet  high,  or  a  little 
less  than  the  remains  of  buildings  above  the  latter,  which 
represent  the  post-Babylonian  history  of  Nippur.  This 
mass  of  debris  accumulated  within  a  period  of  more  than 
three  thousand  years  (3800-J550  b.  c),  was  graduated  to  a 
certain  degree,  if  1  may  use  this  graphic  expression.  For 
a  number  of  pavements,  running  almost  parallel  with  that 
of  Naram-Sin,  divided  it  into  as  many  horizontal  layers 
of  different  depth  and  importance.  At  the  time  of  ex- 
cavation none  of  these  pavements  were  complete,  for  the 
very  simple  reason  that  every  king  who  levelled  the  court 
with  its  ruined  constructions  and  laid  a  new  pavement, 
saved  as  many  of  his  predecessor's  bricks  as  he  could 
extract  from  the  rubbish  without  difficulty.  The  fact  that 
from  the  time  of  Ur-Gur  practically  the  same  mould  (eleven 
to  twelve  inches  square),  was  adopted  for  the  ordinary 
baked  bricks  by  all  the  Babylonian  monarchs  who  repaired 
the  renowned  sanctuary  at  Nippur,  encouraged  their  liberal 
employment  of  the  old  material,  the  more  so  as  proper  fuel 
was  always  scarce  and  expensive  in  the  valleys  of  the  lower 
Euphrates  and  Tigris. 

The  topmost  of  these  pavements  extended  from  the 
"  causeway  "  of  the  ziggurrat,  a  distance  of  sixty-three 
feet  towards  the  southeast,  and  was  covered  with  debris 
one  foot  to  one  and  a  half  high.  Though  none  of  its 
bricks  was  stamped,  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  goes  back 
to  Ashurbanapal,  whose  inscribed  bricks,  sometimes  green 
(originally  blue)  enamelled  on  the  edges,  were  repeatedly 
found  near  its  upper  surface.  As  Havnes  reports  to  have  seen 
no  trace  of  buildings  of  any  sort  resting  upon  the  pave- 
ment, this  section  of  the  court  seems  to  have  been  a  large 
open  place  at  the  time  of  the  last  great  Assyrian  king  (sev- 
enth century  b.  c). 

Several  photographs  clearly  show  that  originally  there  was 
another  pavement  about  two  feet  to  two  and  a  half  below 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      377 

the  first.  If  ever  it  covered  the  entire  court/  only  frac- 
tional parts  of  it  had  been  preserved,  so  that  the  illustration 
facing  this  page  does  not  even  indicate  its  former  existence. 
The  layer  of  earth  enclosed  between  the  upper  and  the 
lower  pavements  was  "  so  firmly  stratified  that  it  seemed 
to  have  been  formed  gradually  by  the  agency  of  water," 
which  was  incessantly  washing  away  the  unprotected  parts 
of  the  ziggurrat.  But  Haynes'  obseWation  is  not  quite 
accurate  ;  for  a  band  of  "  mingled  bitumen,  charcoal,  and 
wood  ashes,  varying  in  thickness  from  two  to  four  inches," 
and  running  nearlv  through  the  middle  of  this  stratum,  in- 
dicates sufficiently  that  some  kind  of  light  structures  must 
have  existed  on  this  part  of  the  court  at  some  time  during 
the  second  millennium,  to  which  I  ascribe  the  second  pave- 
ment. In  all  probability  it  was  laid  by  a  Cassite  ruler,  pre- 
sumably Kadashman-Turgu,  who  not  only  restored  but  en- 
larged the  ziggurrat  and  provided  it  with  new  casing  walls. 
If  I  interpret  correctlv  Haynes'  somewhat  confused  reports 
of  the  different  sections  of  the  court  excavated  by  him, 
and  adjust  his  results  properly  with  one  another,  this  pave- 
ment must  be  regarded  as  a  continuation  of  the  lower  course 
of  a  border  pavement,  which  surrounded  the  four  sides  of 
Kadashman-Turgu's  stage-tower,  being  ten  feet  wide  in 
front  of  the  latter  and  somewhat  narrower  on  its  other  three 
sides,  where  it  terminated  in  a  gutter.  This  border  pave- 
ment consisted  of  two  courses  of  bricks  laid  in  bitumen,  and 
served  as  a  basis  for  a  sloping  bed  of  bitumen  designed  to 
protect  the  foundations  of  the  pyramid  from  falling  rain. 
None  of  the  bricks  were  inscribed  except  one,  which  con- 
tained the  name  of  Ur-Ninib  on  its  upper  face,  thereby  in- 
dicating that  it  was  out  of  its  original  position  and  belonged 

^  It  seems  as  if  the  pavement  of  baked  bricks  was  confined  to  the  imme- 
diate environments  of  the  ziggurrat  and  continued  by  a  pavement  of  crude 
bricks  (ii}4  by  iij4  by  4^  inches),  repeatedly  referred  to  by  Haynes  at 
about  the  same  level. 


378  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

to  much  older  material  used  again.  An  interesting  discovery 
made  at  the  same  level,  on  the  back  side  of  the  ziggurrat 
near  its  west  corner,  confirms  my  theorv  expressed  above 
that  the  whole  court  around  it  was  studded  with  smaller 
buildings  at  the  time  of  the  Cassite  dominion.  For  while 
clearing  the  northwest  face  of  the  stage-tower  Havnes  came 
upon  a  room  resting  on  the  brick  pavement  now  under  con- 
sideration, and  containing  six  whole  cuneiform  tablets,  a 
little  over  a  hundred  small  fragments  of  others,  and  an  un- 
polished marble  weight  in  the  shape  of  a  duck,  which  was 
nearly  a  foot  long. 

At  an  average  depth  of  a  foot  and  a  half  below  the  second 
pavement  was  a  third,  much  better  preserved.  It  was  laid 
by  Ur-Ninib,  one  of  the  kings  of  the  dynasty  of  (N)isrn, 
which  occupied  the  throne  of  Babylonia  about  the  middle 
of  the  third  pre-Christian  millenium.  Out  of  a  section  of 
143  bricks,  taken  up  by  Haynes,  135  bore  the  inscription: 
"Ur-Ninib,  the  glorious  shepherd  of  Nippur,  the  shepherd 
of  Ur,  he  who  delivers  the  commands  of  Eridu,  the  gracious 
lord  of  Erech,  king  of  (N)isin,  king  of  Shumer  and  Akkad, 
the  beloved  consort  of  Ishtar."  One  was  stamped  with 
Ur-Gur's  well-known  legend,  and  six  were  uninscribed. 
From  the  reports  before  us  we  receive  no  information  as 
to  any  walls  or  noteworthy  antiquities  having  been  discov- 
ered in  the  layer  of  rubbish  once  covering  the  pavement. 

The  most  important  of  all  the  strata  above  the  level  of 
Naram-Sin  is  that  which  lies  between  the  pavement  of  Ur- 
Ninib  and  the  next  one  below.  As  the  former  was  not 
always  exactly  parallel  to  the  latter,  it  is  in  some  places 
almost  three  feet  deep,  though  its  average  thickness  is 
scarcely  more  than  two.  It  rests  upon  a  "  platform  "  of 
clay  and  unbaked  bricks,  which,  in  size,  color,  and  texture 
are  identical  with  the  mass  of  crude  bricks  forming  the 
body  of  the  ziggurrats  of  NufFar  and  Warka,  and  there- 
fore may  be  safely  ascribed  to   Ur-Gur,  king  of  Ur  (about 


DURING  I'Jin  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      379 

2700  B.  c).     The  layer  of  rubbish   and  earth  which  cov- 
ered   the   pavement  deserves    our   special    attention,    as    it 
yielded   more  inscribed  antiquities  than  anv  other  part  of 
the  temple  enclosure  hitherto  examined.    Over  six  hundred 
fragments  of  vases,  statues,  slabs,  brick-stamps,  and  a  num- 
ber of  doorsockets  were  gathered   by  the  different  expedi- 
tions in  this  remarkable  stratum,  doubly  remarkable  as  most 
of  the  objects  obtained  from  it  did   not  belong  to  Ur-Gur 
and  his  successors,  as  at  first  might    be    expected,   but  to 
kings  and  high  officials  whom,  on  the  basis  of  strong  palaeo- 
graphic  evidence  and  for  various  other  reasons,  I  was  forced 
to  ascribe  to  the  earliest  phase  of  Babylonian  history  ante- 
dating Sargon   I    (about  3800   b.    c.)  by  several  centuries. 
As  practically  nothing  but  heavy  door-sockets  in   dolerite 
and  some  shapeless  blocks    of  veined    marble  (technically 
known  as  calcite  stalagmite)  were  found  whole  ;   as  most  of 
the  fragments  were  extraordinarily  small   in   size,  and   as, 
moreover,  portions  of  the  same  vases  repeatedly  were  dis- 
covered at  places  widely  distant  from  each  other,  we  cannot 
avoid   the  conclusion    that    these  precious   antiquities  had 
been  broken  and  scattered  on  purpose ;  in  other  words,  that 
these  numerous  inscribed  vases   and  more  than  fifty  brick- 
stamps  with  the   names   of   Sargon   and    Naram-Sin  upon 
them,  which  had   been  scrupulously  preserved  and  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation,  must  have  been  stored 
somewhere  within  the  precincts  of  the  court  of  the  ziggurraty 
until  they  were  rudely  destroyed  by  somebody  who  lived 
between  the  reigns  of  Ur-Gur  of  Ur,  and   Ur-Ninib  of 
(N)isin.     Apart  from  a  brick  of  Ur-Ninib,  the  latest  in- 
scribed monument  recovered  from  this  well-defined  stratum 
is  a  door-socket  of  Bur-Sin   of  Ur,  or  rather  an  inscribed 
block  of  dolerite,  presented  to  Bel  by  Lugalkigubnidudu,  a 
very  ancient  king  of  Ur  and  Erech,  and  afterwards  turned 
into  a  door-socket  and  rededicated  to  the  temple  of  Nip- 
pur by  Bur-Sin.     Hence  it  follows  that  the  last-mentioned 


380  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

monarch  must  have  lived  before  Ur-Ninib,  and  is  more 
closely  connected  with  Ur-Gur  than  has  generally  been 
asserted,  a  fact  fully  corroborated  by  the  recent  investiga- 
tions of  Thureau-Dangin,  who  has  shown  that  there  was  only 
one  dynasty  of  Ur  in  the  third  pre-Christian  millennium. 
But  we  draw  another  important  conclusion.  It  is  entirely 
impossible  to  assume  that  a  native  Babylonian  usurper  of 
the  throne,  however  ill-disposed  toward  an  ancient  cult  and 
however  unscrupulous  in  the  means  taken  to  suppress  it, 
should  have  committed  such  an  outrage  against  the  sacred 
property  of  the  great  national  sanctuary  of  the  country. 
The  breaking  and  scattering  of  the  vases  not  only  indi- 
cates a  period  of  great  political  disturbance  in  Babylonia, 
but  points  unmistakably  to  a  foreign  invasion.  Whence 
did  it  come  ? 

We  know  on  the  one  hand,  from  the  chronological  lists 
of  dates  and  the  last  lines  of  thousands  of  business  tablets  of 
the  third  millennium,  that  the  powerful  kings  of  Ur  had  led 
their  armies  victoriously  to  Elam,  conquered  even  Susa, 
and  established  a  Babylonian  hegemony  over  the  subdued 
cities  and  districts  of  their  ancient  enemies.  And  we  know 
on  the  other  hand,  from  numerous  references  in  Babylonian 
and  Assyrian  inscriptions,  remarkably  confirmed  by  De 
Morgan's  excavations  in  Susa,  that  towards  2300  b.  c.  the 
Elamites  were  for  a  while  in  the  complete  possession  of 
the  lower  country  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  even  estab- 
lishing an  Elamitic  dynasty  at  Larsa  after  they  had  devas- 
tated and  ransacked  all  the  renowned  temples  of  Shumer 
and  Akkad.  Between  these  two  historical  events,  which 
reversed  the  political  relations  between  Babylonia  and 
Elam  completely,  we  must  place  the  native  dynasties  of 
(N)isin  and  Larsa,  preceded  by  a  first  Elamitic  invasion, 
which  occurred  about  tw'o  hundred  years  before  the  second 
one.  It  was  this  first  Elamitic  invasion  which  caused  the 
destruction   of   the    temple    property   at   Nippur,  brought 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY :  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      381 

about  the  downfall  of  the  dynasty  of  Ur,  and  apparently 
led  to  the  rise  of  the  dynasty  of  (N)isin,  to  which  Ur- 
Ninib  belongs,  whose  pavement  covered  the  layer  of  debris 
with  the  numerous  broken  vases.  If  the  text  of  a  votive 
inscription  of  Enannatuma,  son  of  Ishme-Dagan,  king  of 
(N)isinj  king  of  Shumer  and  Akkad,  published  many  years 
ago  by  Rawlinson/  is  entirely  correct,  the  last  representa- 
tive of  the  dynasty  of  Ur  would  have  been  Gungunu, 
since  he  no  longer  has  the  proud  title  of  his  immediate 
predecessors,"  "king  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  earth,"  nor 
the  less  significant  one  borne  by  his  first  two  ancestors,^ 
but  is  styled  only  "  king  of  Ur."  In  this  case  Ishme- 
Dagan  should  have  been  the  founder  of  the  new  dynasty, 
who  allowed  Gungunu  to  lead  the  life  of  the  shadow  of  a 
king  until  his  death,'*  under  the  control  of  one  of  his  own 
sons,  whom  he  invested  with  the  highest  religious  office 
in  the  temple  of  Sin  at  Ur.      If,  however,  Gungunu,  "king 

1  Comp.  i  R.  2,  no.  vi,  i,  and  36,  no.  2. 

^  Bur-Sin  I,  Gimil-Sin,  Ine-Sin. 

^  Ur-Gur  and  Dungi.  The  latter  was  the  first  to  adopt  the  more  compre- 
hensive title  in  connection  with  his  successful  wars  some  time  between  the 
X  +  2 1  St  and  x  +  29th  vears  of  his  long  government.  Comp.  Thureau- 
Dangin  in  Comptes  Rendus,   1902,  pp.  84,  seqq. 

^  Comp.  the  date  of  a  tablet  mentioned  by  Scheil  in  Maspero's  Recueil, 
vol.  xxi  (1899),  p.  125:  /////  Gu-U7i-gu-nu  ba-tll,  "the  year  when  G. 
died."  If  the  former  view,  set  forth  above,  be  correct,  this  tablet  would  be- 
long to  the  government  of  Ishme-Dagan  or  his  successor,  and  its  peculiar  date 
would  thus  find  an  easy  explanation.  In  the  other  case  the  date  would  ap- 
pear somewhat  strange,  as  it  was  not  customary  to  call  a  year  after  the  death 
of  an  actual  ruler,  but  rather  after  his  successor's  accession  to  the  throne. 
There  exist  a  few  other  tablets  which  are  dated  according  to  the  reigns  ot 
kings  of  the  dynastv  of  (N)isin.  Among  the  results  of  the  third  Philadelphia 
sxpedition  I  remember  distinctly  to  have  seen  one  dated  in  the  reign  ot  Ur- 
Ninib,  and  Scheil  (in  Recueil,  vol.  xxiii,  1901,  pp.  93,  seq.^  mentions  an- 
other from  Sippara  which  bears  the  name  of  King  Damiq-ilishu,  a  second  mem- 
ber of  the  same  dynasty  (comp.  next  page  below),  whom  Scheil,  however, 
wrongly  identified  with  his  namesake  of  the  second  dynasty  of  Babylon. 


382  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  Ur,"  mentioned  in  Enannatuma's  inscription  should 
prove  to  be  a  mistake  for  Gungunu,  "  Iving  of  Larsa,"  a  ruler 
whose  existence  was  recently^  communicated  to  me  by  Thu- 
reau-Dangin,  Ishme-Dagan  would  be  the  last  and  Ishbigirra 
(succeeded  by  Ur-Ninib  ?)  probably  the  first  representative 
of  the  dynastv  of  (N)isin.  In  this  case  Gungunu  must 
have  been  the  founder  of  the  native  dynasty  of  Larsa,  which 
would  have  followed  immediately  upon  that  of  (N)isin,  con- 
tinuing to  reign  (Nur-Ramman  and  Sin-idinnam),  until  it 
was  overthrown  in  connection  with  the  second  Elamitic  in- 
vasion, about  2300  B,  c.  However  this  mav  be,  whether 
we  have  to  distinguish  two  kings  by  the  name  of  Gun- 
gunu —  the  one  king  of  Ur,  the  other  king  of  Larsa  (as  we 
have  two  rulers,  Bur-Sin,  the  one  king  of  Ur,  the  other  king 
of  (N)isin), —  or  whether  there  was  only  one  Gungunu, 
namely,  the  king  of  Larsa,  this  much  can  be  regarded  as 
certain,  that  the  dynasties  of  Ur,  (N)isin  and  Larsa  suc- 
ceeded each  other  in  the  order  just  quoted,  and  that  for  at 
least  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  years"  the  city 
of  (N)isin  appeared  as   the  champion   of  Babylonian  inde- 

^  In  a  personal  letter  of  Julv  29,  1902,  in  which,  on  the  basis  of  a  new 
brick  fragment  recently  acquired  bv  the  Louvre,  Thureau-Dangin  is  inclined 
to  doubt  the  existence  of  a  Gungunu,  king  of  Ur.  The  fact  that  in  both  of 
his  inscriptions  Enannaeema  has  the  title  s/iag  JJruma,  which  (along  with 
u-a  Uruma)  the  Babylonian  kings  of  Larsa  place  at  the  head  of  their  titles, 
speaks  decidedly  in  favor  of  an  identitv  of  Gungunu  of  Ur  with  Gungunu 
of  Larsa.  For  evidently  the  rise  of  the  dynasty  of  Larsa  was  connected 
as  closely  with  the  possession  of  the  sanctuary  of  Sin  at  Ur  as  the  rise  of  the 
dynasty  of  (N)isin  with  that  of  the  temple  of  Bel  at  Nippur  (comp.  the  fact 
that  all  the  members  of  this  dynasty  place  sib  (u-a  or  sag-ush)  Nippur  before 
all  their  other  titles). 

2  It  comprised  at  least  seven  kings,  Ishbigirra,  Ur-Ninib,  Libit-Ishtar, 
Bur-Sin  II,  Damiq-ilishu,  Idin-Dagan,  and  Ishme-Dagan,  all  but  the  first 
and  the  sixth  kings  being  represented  by  inscriptions  from  Nippur.  The 
question  arises  now,  whether  kings  like  Bel-bani,  Rim-Anum,  etc.,  generally 
classified  with  the  kings  of  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon,  must  not  be  regarded 
rather  as  members  of  the  dynasty  of  (N)isin. 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      383 

pendence,  until  its  leading  position  was  contested  by  Baby- 
lon under  Sin-muballit  in  the  North.  But  how  important 
a  role  to  the  very  last  (N)isin  must  have  played  in  resisting 
the  imperialistic  ideas  of  the  Elamitic  invaders,  whose  ulti- 
mate aim  was  the  establishing  of  a  kingdom  of  Shumer  and 
Alckad  under  the  sceptre  of  an  Elamitic  prince,  becomes 
evident  from  the  mere  fact,  that  Rim-Sin,  son  of  Kudur- 
Mabuk,  who  supplanted  the  native  kings  of  Larsa  and 
realized  the  Elamitic  dream  for  about  twenty-five  to  thirty 
years,  introduced  a  new  era  by  dating  the  single  years  of 
his  government  after  the  fall  of  (N)isin. 

As  remarked  above,  with  but  few  exceptions  all  the  ob- 
jects rescued  by  Haynes  from  the  stratum  beneath  Ur- 
Ninib's  platform  were  in  a  most  lamentable  condition.  Yet, 
after  infinite  toil,  I  succeeded  in  dividing  them  in  groups 
according  to  certain  palasographic  peculiarities  exhibited  by 
them,  and  ultimately  restored  a  number  of  inscriptions 
almost  completely,  notably  the  famous  text  of  Lugalzaggisi, 
"king  of  Erech,  king  of  the  world,"  with  its  132  lines  of 
writing  obtained  from  eighty-eight  often  exasperatingly  small 
fragments  of  sixty-four  different  vases.  The  new  material 
proved  of  fundamental  importance  for  our  knowledge  of 
the  early  history  of  Babylonia  in  the  fifth  and  fourth  pre- 
Christian  millenniums.  In  connection  with  the  inscriptions 
from  Tello  these  texts  enabled  us  to  follow  the  general  trend 
of  the  political  and  religious  development  of  the  country. 
We  see  how  a  number  of  petty  states,  sometimes  consisting 
of  nothing  more  than  a  walled  city  grouped  around  a 
well-known  sanctuary,  are  constantly  quarrelling  with  one 
another  about  the  hegemony,  victorious  to-day,  defeated  to- 
morrow. The  more  prominent  princes  present  votive  offer- 
ings to  Bel  of  Nippur,  which  stands  out  as  the  great  reli- 
gious centre  of  Babylonia  at  the  earliest  period  of  its  history. 
For  the  first  time  we  meet  with  the  names  of  Utug,  patesi, 

29 


384  EXPLORATIOXS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

and  Urzag(?)uddu  ^  and  En-Bildar,^  kings  of  Kish,  En- 
shagkushanna,  "  lord  of  Kengi,  king  of  the  world,"  Lugal- 
kigubnidudu  and  Lugalkisalsi,  kings  of  Erech  and  Ur, 
Urumush,  "  king  of  Kish,"  and  others,  or  we  gather  fur- 
ther details  concerning  monarchs  previously  known,  as,  e.  g., 
Entemena  of  Lagash,  Manishtusu  of  Kish,  Sargon  and 
Naram-Sin  of  Agade.  Above  all,  we  get  acquainted  with 
the  great  "  hero,"  Lugalzaggisi,  "  who  was  favorably 
looked  upon  by  the  faithful  eye  of  Bel,  ...  to  whom 
intelligence  was  given  by  Ea  .  .  .,  and  who  was  nour- 
ished with  the  milk  of  life  by  the  goddess  Ningarsag." 
Indeed  a  great  conqueror  he  must  have  been,  one  of  the 
mightiest  monarchs  of  the  ancient  East  thus  far  known,  a 
king  who,  long  before  Sargon  I  was  born,  could  boast  of 
an  empire  extending  from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

In  addition  to  the  many  broken  vases  with  their  interest- 
ing forms  and  inscriptions  equally  important  for  archaeology, 
history,  and  palaeography,  this  unique  stratum  also  yielded  a 
few  fragments  of  statues,  reliefs,  and  other  antiquities  simi- 
lar to  those  of  Tello.  They  illustrate  again  that  the  Baby- 
lonian artist  was  as  ready  to  glorify  Bel  of  Nippur  as  he 
was  to  place  his  talents  in  the  service  of  Ningirsu  and  Bau 
of  Lagash.  And  they  indicate  at  the  same  time  that  in  all 
probability  great  surprises  will  await  the  future  explorer  of 
Nuffar  who  will  turn  his  attention  from  the  ziggurrat  to  the 
temple  proper,  which  to  the  present  day  has  scarcely  been 
touched,  as  both  Peters  and  Haynes  regarded  the  temple 
of  Bel  and  its  stage-tower  practically  as  the  same  thing, 
and,    unconscious    of  what    they    were    doing,  covered  the 

^  The  second  sign  is  doubtful.  Possibly  my  former  reading  Ur-Dun  (Shul) 
pauddu  is  correct. 

2  The  name  means  "  Bildar  fa  well-lcnown  star-god)  is  lord."  This 
reading  of  Hommel  is  preferable  to  Thureau-Dangin's  Enbi-hhtar  or  my 
former  provisional  reading  Enne-  Ugun. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      385 

neighboring  ruins  with  fifty  to  seventy  feet  of  rubbish,  ex- 
cavated by  them  in  the  court  of  the  ziggurraL  Among  the 
objects  of  art  from  beneath  the  pavement  of  Ur-Ninib  which 
claim  our  special  attention,  I  only  mention  a  straight  nose 
in  basalt  originally  belonging  to  a  statue  in  life  size  ;  the  tol- 
erably well-preserved  shaved  head  of  a  small  white  marble 
statue  of  the  period  of  Ur-Nina  ;  and  the  torso  of  a  large 


Torso  of  an  Inscribed  Statue  in  Dolerite,  about  2700  b.  c. 
Original  tivo-thirds  of  life  size 

Statue  in  polished  dolerite,  about  two-thirds  of  life  size. 
The  material  and  certain  details  of  the  statue  remind  us  of 
the  famous  sculptures  of  Gudea  (comp.  p.  237,  above).  The 
attitude  of  the  whole  body,  the  peculiar  position  of  the 
arms  with  the  clasped  hands,  the  swelling  of  the  muscles  of 
the  right  arm,  the  delicately  carved  nails  of  the  fingers,  and 
the  fine  shawl  with  its  graceful   folds  passing  over  the  right 


386  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

breast  and  loosely  thrown  over  the  left  arm  are  equally 
characteristic  of  the  statue  of  Nippur  and  of  those  from 
Tello.  But  on  the  other  hand  the  torso  under  considera- 
tion presents  distinctive  features  of  its  own.  It  has  a  long 
and  flowing  beard  already  curled  and  twisted  in  that  con- 
ventional style  with  which  we  are  familiar  from  the  Assvrian 
monuments  of  Nineveh  and  Khorsabad/  A  richly  embroi- 
dered band,  one  inch  and  a  third  wide,  passes  over  the  left 
shoulder,  and  seems  to  be  fastened  to  the  shawl,  which  it 
holds  in  place.  Each  wrist  is  encircled  with  a  bracelet  of 
precious  stones,  and  the  neck  is  adorned  with  a  necklace 
of  large  beads  strung  on  a  skein  of  finely  spun  wool,  and 
in  its  whole  appearance  not  unlike  the  'uga/  with  which  the 
modern  Arab  shaikhs  of  Babylonia  fasten  their  silken  head- 
dress {keffiye).  A  short  legend  with  the  names  of  Bel  and 
the  donor  of  the  monument  was  originally  engraved  on  the 
back  of  the  statue  between  its  two  shoulders.  But  the  bar- 
barous and  revengeful  Elamites  who  broke  so  manv  fine 
votive  gifts  of  the  temple  at  Nippur  cut  the  inscription  away 
with  the  exception  of  the  last  line,  "  he  made  it."  In  all 
probabilitv  the  statue  was  erected  by  one  of  the  kings  of  the 
dynasty  of  Ur  (between  2700  and  2600  b.  c). 

The  storage  room  where  all  the  antiquities  referred  to  had 
originally  been  kept  was  discovered  by  Havnes  in  his  exca- 
vations along  the  southeast  wall  of  the  fortified  enclosure. 
It  was  a  well-planned  cellar,  2^6  feet  long,  11  ^^2  feet  wide, 
and  8^/^  feet  deep,  built  entirely  into  this  wall,  evidently  by 
Ur-Gur  himself."  Descending  as  far  down  as  the  level  of 
the  pavement  of  Naram-Sin,  it  had,  some  two  and  a  half 
feet  above  the  floor  of  stamped  earth,  a  ledge  of  crude  bricks 
1 1^  feet  wide,  which  was  capped  by  a  layer  of  baked  bricks 

^  Comp.  the  terra-cotta  head  from  Nippur  published  bv  me  in  "  The  Bab. 
Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.  ix,  pi.  xii,  no.  22. 

"^  Comp.  my  treatment  of  the  whole  question  in  "  The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the 
U.  of  Pa.,"  vol.  i,  series  A,  part  i,  pp.  28,  seqg. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY :   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      387 

and  extended  completely  around  the  four  walls  of  the  room. 
A  discovery  made  in  connection  with  the  next  pavement  be- 
low proved  that  it  had  served  as  a  shelf  for  the  safe  keeping 
of  treasures,  sacrificial  gifts,  and  documents.^  A  construction 
of  baked  bricks,  which  we  notice  in  the  illustration  facing 
p.  377  (No.  3),  seems  also  to  have  been  built  first  by  one 
of  the  kings  of  the  dynasty  of  Ur,  possibly  by  Ur-Gur 
himself.  But  as  Haynes  did  not  extend  his  excavations  of 
the  third  campaign  to  the  northeast  section  of  the  court, 
we  leave  it  for  the  present  out  of  consideration. 

A  word  must  be  said  about  Peters'  and  Haynes'  so- 
called  "  platform  of  Ur-Gur,"  which  was  covered  with  the 
layer  of  debris  containing  the  precious  vase  fragments  and 
the  door-sockets  of  Sargon  I.  Some  portions  were  made 
of  crude  bricks,  but  bv  far  the  greater  part  of  it  consisted 
of  large  lumps  of  kneaded  clay,  which  "  in  a  moist  condi- 
tion, had  been  laid  up  en  masse  in  two  thick  layers,"  each 
one  about  four  feet  thick.  This  "  platform,"  however,  did 
not  constitute  a  large  terrace,  raised  to  support  the  zig- 
gurrat  itself,  and  consequently  did  not  run  through  the 
whole  mound,  as  I  formerly  assumed  in  accordance  with 
the  erroneous  views  of  my  predecessors ;  but,  like  all  the 
pavements  lying  above  it,  it  was  only  an  especially  thick 
pavement  laid  by  Ur-Gur  as  a  solid  floor  for  his  open  court 
around  the  stage-tower,  and  naturally  also  bore  the  weight 
of  his  additions  to  the  latter.  As  soon  as  Haynes  com- 
menced to  remove  it,  he  made  an  interesting  discovery, 
which  illustrates  the  great  antiquity  of  a  custom  previously 
observed  in  connection  with  the  Parthian  fortress  (comp.  pp. 
366,  seqq.).  At  different  places  between  its  layers  of  clay  he 
found  a  number  of  valuable  antiquities.  These  evidently 
had  been  taken  from  the  rubbish  below  at  the  time  when 
Ur-Gur  levelled  the  court,  to  be  placed  as  talismans  in 
the  new  foundation.     Among  the  objects  thus  obtained,  we 

^  Comp.  pp.  247,  seqq.,  above. 


388  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

mention  several  well-formed  copper  nails  and  fragments 
of  copper  vessels,  a  fine  brick  stamp  of  Sargon  I.,  the 
fragment  of  a  pre-Sargonic  mace-head,  two  slightly  con- 
cave seal  cylinders  in  white  shell  and  stone,  about  twenty 
well-preserved  unbaked  clay  tablets  antedating  the  period 
of  Sargon,  a  great  quantity  of  large  but  badly  broken  frag- 
ments of  similar  tablets,  and,  above  all,  an  important  stone 
tablet  7  inches  long,  51^  inches  wide,  and  a  little  over  2 
inches  thick,  completely  covered  on  all  its  six  faces  with 
the  most  archaic  cuneiform  writing  known  from  the  monu- 
ments of  Nuffar  and  Tello. 

Ur-Gur's  clay  pavement  was  separated  from  the  next  one 
below,  i.  e.,  the  fifth  one  from  the  top,  by  a  layer  of  earth 
generally  only  a  few  inches  deep,  —  a  circumstance  that  can- 
not surprise  us,  as  that  ruler  very  evidently  removed  a  con- 
siderable mass  of  debris  in  order  to  secure  a  solid  basis  for 
his  own  unusually  thick  pavement.  Having  cut  through 
this  thin  layer,  Haynes,  in  truth,  could  exclaim  with  King 
Nabonidos  :  What  for  ages  no  king  among  the  kings  had 
seen,  the  old  foundation  of  Naram-Sin,  son  of  Sargon,  that 
saw  I.  More  than  this,  he  saw  the  inscribed  bricks  of  both 
of  these  ancient  rulers,  whose  very  existence  until  then  had 
been  seriously  doubted  by  different  scholars.  The  extraor- 
dinary value  of  this  pavement  for  Babylonian  archaeology 
lies  in  the  fact  that  it  supplied  the  first  irrefutable  proof  of 
the  historical  character  of  this  ancient  Semitic  kingdom, 
that  it  enabled  us  more  clearly  to  comprehend  the  chrono- 
logical order  of  the  rulers  of  Tello  and  Sargon  I,  and  that 
it  enabled  us  to  establish  new  and  indubitable  criteria  to 
distinguish  between  pre-Sargonic  and  post-Sargonic  con- 
structions and  antiquities.  It  is,  therefore,  a  matter  of 
the  utmost  regret  that  Haynes,  not  fully  realizing  the 
unique  importance  of  what  he  had  been  so  fortunate  to 
discover,  removed  this  precious  pavement  almost  com- 
pletely.    It  consisted  of  two  courses  of  baked  bricks.     The 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       389 

upper  one  was  composed  of  enormous  bricks  of  uniform 
size  and  mould,  15^  to  16  j4  inches  square  and  ^'^A  inches 
thick.  Several  of  them  were  stamped  with  the  brief  legend  : 
"  Shargani-shar-ali  (the  original  fuller  name  of  Sargon^),  king 
of  Agade,  builder  of  (at)  the  temple  of  Bel ;  "  others  bore 
the  words  :  "  Naram-Sin,  builder  of  (at)  the  temple  of  Bel," 
while  still  others  were  without  any  inscription.  The  bricks 
of  Naram-Sin  were  more  numerous  than  those  of  his  father, 
the  ratio  between  them  being  about  three  to  one.  Haynes 
adds  the  interesting  observation  that  some  of  these  bricks 
were  colored  red  when  he  found  them,  but  that  their  color 
faded  slowly  whenever  they  were  exposed  to  the  air  and 
the  sunlight.  The  lower  course  contained  only  imperfect 
bricks  of  both  Sargon  and  his  son  and  many  plano-convex 
bricks  with  a  thumb-mark  on  their  upper  (convex)  side. 
It  became  evident  at  once  that  these  peculiar  plano-convex 
bricks,  1 1  by  7  by  2  inches  in  size,  represent  an  earlier 
(pre-Sargonic)  period,  and  that  the  pavement  itself  was 
originally  laid  by  Sargon  and  relaid  by  Naram-Sin,  both 
of  them  utilizing  older  material  in  connection  with  their 
own  bricks. 

The  same  intermingling  of  earlier  bricks  with  those  of  the 
Sargon  dynasty  was  noticed  in  connection  with  several  frag- 
ments of  narrow  watercourses,  which  Haynes  found  at  the 
level  of  Naram-Sin's  pavement,  but,  as  it  seems,  discon- 
nected with  it.  His  notes  at  our  disposal  are  very  meagre, 
and  refer  only  to  one  of  these  conduits,  which  came  from 
the  middle  of  the  open  court  and  very  perceptibly  sloped 
down  towards  the  angle  formed  by  the  front  face  of  the 
ziggurrat  and  the  two  parallel  walls  representing  part  of 
its  entrance.  This  meandering  section,  which  was  traced 
for  twenty-five    feet,  consisted    of    nine  joints  of  trough- 

1  Comp.  my  discussion  on  this  question  in  <'The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U. 
of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol,  i,  part  i  (1893),  pp.  16, /r^^.,  and  part  2  (1896), 
pp.  19,  seq. 


390  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

shaped  tiles,  15^  feet  in  aggregate  length,  with  an  average 
depth  of  2  inches  and  an  average  breadth  o{  ^H  inches, 
and  continued  on  either  side  by  peculiarly  arranged  bricks 
laid  in  a  clay  cement  (comp.  frontispiece). 

As  Ur-Gur's  pavement  rested  in  some  places  almost 
directly  upon  that  of  his  predecessor,  no  remains  of  other 
buildings  were  noticed  by  Haynes  in  the  thin  layer  between 
them.  However,  beneath  the  storeroom  referred  to  above, 
but  separated  from  its  floor  by  two  feet  of  rubbish,  was 
found  an  earlier  cellar  of  the  same  form,  yet  slightly  smaller 
in  its  dimensions.^  It  was  also  provided  with  a  ledge,  upon 
which  a  circular  tablet,  two  small  rectangular  ones,  and 
the  fragments  of  five  others  were  still  lying.  Four  brick 
stamps  of  Sargon,  with  broken  handles,  which,  together 
with  the  tablets  just  mentioned,  seem  to  have  been  left 
intentionally  or  by  mistake  when  Ur-Gur  removed  the  con- 
tents of  this  earlier  vault  into  his  own  cellar,  were  recovered 
from  the  debris  which  filled  it,  while  a  fifth  one  was  found 
immediately  underneath  its  eastern  corner.  The  partly 
ruined  walls  of  this  lower  structure  were  only  3  feet  high, 
but  originally  they  must  have  measured  between  5  and  6 
feet.  About  one  foot  below  their  top  was  a  deep  bowl  of 
yellow  pottery,  decorated  with  a  rope-pattern  ornament 
on  its  outside,  and  set  in  a  rim  of  thumb-marked  bricks. 
Its  use  could  no  longer  be  determined.  The  building 
material  of  both  storerooms  was  identical  in  form  and 
size,  though  somewhat  different  in  color  and  texture.  It 
follows,  therefore,  that  the  small  mould  employed  by  Ur- 
Gur  for  his  crude  flat  bricks  originated  at  a  much  earlier 
period,  a  result  which  is  in  entire  accord  with  what  we 
learned  from  our  study  of  the  interior  mass  of  the  zig- 
gurrat  (p.  374,  above).  The  important  new  fact  derived 
from  an  examination  of  this  lower  cellar  is  that  these  small 
crude  bricks  (9  by  6  by  3  inches)  can  be  traced  to  about  the 
^  It  was  32  feet  long  by  7  feet  wide. 


DUBING  19111  CENTURY:  ASSYIilA  AND  BABYLONIA      391 

time  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin,  who  in  all  probability  were 
the  original  builders  of  the  southeast  enclosing  wall. 

2.  Pre-Sargonic  Ruins.  According  to  the  date  furnished 
by  Nabonidos  (comp,  p.  273),  from  which  we  have  no  rea- 
son to  deviate,  the  pavement  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin 
marks  the  period  of  about  3800-3750  b.  c.  in  the  history 
of  Bel's  sanctuary  at  Nippur.  As  we  saw  previously,  the 
accumulation  of  debris  above  this  pavement  during  the 
subsequent  3500  years  amounted  to  16  or  17  feet,  includ- 
ing the  clay  pavement  of  Ur-Gur  —  which  alone  was  8  feet 
thick  —  or  8  to  9  feet,  disregarding  the  latter.  This  is  com- 
paratively little  for  such  a  long  period,  considering  the  ra- 
pidity with  which  ordinary  mud  buildings,  such  as  doubtless 
occupied  the  temple  court  at  different  times,  generally 
crumble  and  collapse.  However,  we  must  not  forget  that 
every  ruler  who  laid  a  new  pavement  razed  the  ruined 
buildings  of  his  predecessors  and  levelled  the  ground  for 
his  own  constructions.  But  a  real  surprise  was  to  await  us 
in  the  lowest  strata.  In  descending  into  the  pre-Sargonic 
period  below  Naram-Sin's  pavement,  which  itself  lies  six  to 
eight  feet  above  the  present  level  of  the  desert,  Haynes 
penetrated  through  more  than  thirty  feet  of  ruins  before  he 
reached  the  virgin  soil,  or  thirty-five  feet  before  he  was  at 
the  water  level. ^ 

What  do  these  ruins  contain  ?  To  what  period  of  human 
history  do  they  lead  us?  How  was  this  great  accumulation 
beneath  the  level  of  the  desert  possible  ?  What  geological 
changes  have  taken  place  since  to  explain  this  remarkable 
phenomenon  ?  Such  and  other  similar  questions  may  have 
come  to  many  thoughtful  students  when  they  first  read  these 
extraordinary  facts.  Naturally  enough,  they  also  occupied 
the  mind  of  the   present  writer  seriously   for  the  last  six 

^  These  measurements  are  quoted  from  the  results  of  an  accurate  survey 
of  the  remains  at  the  southeast  court  of  the  ziggurrat  by  Geere  and  Fisher  in 
1900,  when  I  was  personally  in  charge  of  the  excavations. 


392  EXVLOliATlONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

or  seven  years.  I  will  try  to  give  an  answer  later  in  con- 
nection with  our  fourth  campaign,  when  1  had  the  much 
desired  opportunity  to  study  personally  the  few  remains  left 
by  mv  predecessors  in  the  southeast  court  of  the  ziggur- 
raty  and  to  compare  them  with  the  results  of  my  own  exca- 
vations in  the  same  temple  complex.  With  the  mere  reports 
of  Peters  and  Haynes  to  guide  us,  I  am  afraid  we  would 
never  have  suspected  the  real  nature  of  these  pre-Sargonic 
ruins.  For  though  the  numerous  brick  and  pipe  construc- 
tions laid  bare  in  the  lower  strata  belonged  to  the  most 
characteristic  and  best  preserved  antiquities  unearthed  by 
the  Philadelphia  expeditions,  the  work  of  the  two  explorers 
in  the  debris  around  them  is,  perhaps,  the  least  satisfactory 
part  of  all  their  excavations  at  NufFar.  In  consequence  of 
their  destructive  methods  and  their  superficial  work  in  the 
upper  strata,  not  being  sufficiently  prepared  for  the  much 
more  difficult  task  in  the  lower  ones,  they  found  them- 
selves, with  their  untrained  eyes,  suddenly  surrounded  by 
the  little  known  remains  of  Babylonia's  earliest  civiliza- 
tion,— small  bits  of  mud  walls  crushed  and  half  dissolved, 
indistinct  beds  of  ashes,  and  thousands  and  thousands  of 
fragments  of  terra-cotta  vases  generally  not  only  broken,  but 
forced  out  of  their  original  shape  and  position  by  the  enor- 
mous weight  of  earth  lying  above  them.  What  wonder  that 
they  were  unable  to  recognize  the  essential  features  of  this 
tohil  wabbhii  themselves,  or  to  communicate  what  they  saw 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  it  intelligible  to  others  who 
might  feel  inclined  to  try  to  untangle  the  problem  for 
them.^ 

Haynes'  task  in  the  lower  strata  of  the  temple  court  was 

^  What  after  hard  work  and  with  an  unbiassed  mind  I  could  put  together 
from  Haynes'  reports  was  published  in  "The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the  Univ.  of 
Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.  i,  part  2,  pp.  23,  scqq.  It  is  natural  that  the  picture 
had  to  be  defective,  as  the  premises  communicated  on  which  it  was  drawn 
turned  out  to  be  largely  incorrect. 


DURING  19'n  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      393 

as  dearly  defined  as  that  in  the  upper  strata.  He  had  to 
determine  {J}  the  earliest  form  of  Bel's  sanctuary  beneath 
the  ziggurrat,  as  far  as  this  could  safely  be  done  by  means 
of  tunnels  and  without  a  complete  removal  of  the  whole 
ponderous  mass  above  it;  {B)  the  character  and  contents  of 
the  court  adjoining  the  latter  on  the  southeast.  The  proper 
way  to  proceed  would  have  been  to  descend  gradually  and 
equally  on  the  whole  section  to  be  excavated.  But  Haynes, 
repeating  his  former  mistake,  attempted  to  carry  out  the  two 
parts  of  his  task  consecutively,  thereby  lessening  our  chances 
of  comprehending  the  sanctuary  as  a  whole  and  depriving 
us  of  an  opportunity  of  controlling  and  checking  his  results 
at  every  step.  He  accordingly  descended  first  by  two  shafts 
along  the  southeast  face  of  the  ziggurrat,  and  excavated 
what  was  left  of  the  court  afterwards.^  Much  against  my 
will,  I  am  obliged  to  observe  his  arrangement  and  to  pre- 
sent his  work  in  the  manner  in  which  he  executed  it.  He 
again  made  several  interesting  and  important  discoveries, 
but  he  totally  failed  to  ascertain  the  character  of  the  sanc- 
tuary and  the  real  contents  of  its  surroundings,  and  was 
often  unsuccessful  in  understanding  the  single  antiquities 
excavated  and  their  mutual  relation  to  each  other. 

y^.  Haynes  was  doubtless  most  eager  to  find  out  what 
was  lying  beneath  the  ziggurrat.  In  the  course  of  his  ex- 
cavations he  disclosed  four  constructions  either  beneath  the 
tower  or  in  its  immediate  neighborhood,  which  deserve  our 
special  attention.  They  stood  apparently  in  direct  connec- 
tion with  the  earliest  sanctuary,  or  even  formed  part  of  it. 

I.  About  three  and  a  half  feet  below  Naram-Sin's  pave- 
ment he  came  upon  the  top  of  a  narrow^  strip  of  burned 
brickwork  (No.  6).  It  was  about  twelve  feet  distant  from 
the  front  face  of  the  stage-tower,  with  which  it  ran  roughly 
parallel,    continuing    its    course    equally   to   the    southwest 

1  Comp.  the  illustration  facing  p.  453,  which  enables  the  reader  to  un- 
derstand the  method  by  which  Haynes  proceeded. 


894 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


under  the  entrance  walls  of  Ur-Gur  and  to  the  northeast  of 
the  court-yard,  in  the  rubbish  of  which  it  disappeared.  This 
peculiar  curb  seemed  to  define  an  earlier  sanctuary  towards 
the  southeast.  It  was  i8  inches  high,  and  consisted  of 
seven  courses  of  plano-convex  bricks   (8^  by  5^  by  2^ 


South-Eastern  Section  of  the  Ziggurrat. 

Designed  by  H.  V.  Hilprecht,  drawn  by  C.  S.  Fisher. 

/.    Southeast  facade  built  by  Ur-Gur.      2.    Remains  of  the  entrance  ivalls  built  by  the  same. 

J.  Northeast  conduit  hilt  by  Ur-Gur,  repaired  by  Ka'dashman-Turgu  and  Ashurbanapal.      4. 

Pa-vement  of  Ur-Gur.     J.  Pa-vement  of  Naram-Sin.     6.  Pre-Sargonic  curb.     7.    The  L-shaped 

structure.      8.    The  so-called  altar,      g.    Drain  luith  arch. 

inches  and  evidently  forming  the  basis  for  Ur-Gur's  stand- 
ard size  of  flat  bricks).  They  were  curiously  creased 
lengthwise,  and  their  convex  surface,  without  exception, 
was  placed  upward  in  the  wall. 

2.   Inside  this  enclosure,  directly  below  the  pavement  (No. 
4)   of  Ur-Gur's  ziggurrat  (No.  i)    and    practically  leaning 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      395 

against  the  latter,  if  we  imagine  its  front  face  continued 
farther  down,  stood  another  interesting  structure  (No.  8). 
Its  top  was  three  feet  below  Naram-Sin's  pavement,  and 
accordingly  two  feet  higher  than  the  base  of  the  curb, 
from  which  it  was  distant  about  four  feet.  It  was  13  feet 
long,  8  feet  wide,  and  constructed  of  unbaked  bricks  laid 
in  bitumen.  The  upper  hollowed  surface  of  this  massive 
concern  was  surrounded  by  a  rim  of  bitumen,  7  inches  high, 
and  was  covered  with  a  layer  of  white  ashes  2j4  inches 
in  depth,  which  contained  evident  remains  of  bones.  To 
the  southwest  of  it  Havnes  discovered  a  kind  of  bin  also 
built  of  crude  bricks  and  likewise  filled  with  (black  and 
white)  ashes  about  a  foot  deep.  He  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusion, therefore,  that  this  was  an  altar,  "  the  ancient  place 
where  the  sacrificial  victims  were  burned."  This  expla- 
nation is  possible,  but  not  probable.  In  fact,  the  enor- 
mous size  of  the  structure  and  the  rim  of  bitumen,  which 
necessarily  would  have  been  consumed  at  every  large  sacri- 
fice, speak  decidedly  against  his  theory.  Besides,  an  Old- 
Babylonian  altar  has  an  entirely  different  form  on  the 
numerous  seal  cylinders  where  it  is  depicted.  My  own 
explanation  of  this  structure  will  be  found  in  connection 
with  the  results  of  the  fourth  expedition. 

3.  Directly  below  the  east  corner  of  Ur-Gur's  ziggurrat, 
and  parallel  with  its  northeast  and  southeast  faces,  was  an- 
other building,  exhibiting  the  peculiar  ground-plot  of  an 
L  (No.  7),  but  with  regard  to  its  original  purpose  even 
more  puzzling  than  either  of  the  two  structures  just  de- 
scribed. Its  top  was  on  a  level  with  Naram-Sin's  pave- 
ment, while  its  foundation  was  laid  eleven  feet  below  it. 
This  solid  tower-like  edifice,  disconnected  with  any  other 
structure  in  its  neighborhood,  "  had  an  equal  outside  length 
and  breadth  of  23  feet"  (northeast  and  southeast  sides),  and 
was  about  12  feet  thick.  "  Its  splendid  walls,  which  show 
no  trace  of  a  door  or  opening  of  any  kind,  were  built  of  large 


396  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

crude  bricks"  (on  an  average  16  inches  square  and  3^ 
inches  thick),  made  of  "  tenacious  clay  thoroughly  mixed 
with  finely  cut  straw  and  well  kneaded."  They  are  "of 
good  mould,  and  in  proportions,  size,  and  texture  closely 
resemble  the  stamped  crude  bricks  of  Naram-Sin."  Though 
Haynes  devoted  much  time  to  their  identification,  he  could 
determine  neither  the  design  of  the  building  nor  "  the  era 
of  its  construction."  Yet  he  felt  sure  that  it  was  "  the  lowest 
and  most  ancient  edifice  "  thus  far  discovered  in  the  temple 
enclosure  of  Nippur,  and  that  its  bricks  are  "the  prototype 
of  those  of  Naram-Sin,  which  they  doubtless  preceded  by  at 
least  several  centuries."  To  my  regret,  I  must  differ  again 
with  these  conclusions  after  having  studied  the  history  of 
the  ziggurrat  in  connection  with  a  second  personal  visit  to 
the  ruins  in  1900. 

While  examining  the  surroundings  of  this  interesting  edi- 
fice, Haynes  came  first  upon  the  same  gray  or  black  ashes 
as  are  found  everywhere  in  the  court  of  the  ziggurrat  imme- 
diately below  Naram-Sin's  pavement,  next  upon  "  lumps  of 
kneaded  clay,"  then  upon  several  stray  bits  of  lime  mortar. 
All  these  traces  of  human  activity  were  imbedded  in  the 
debris  characteristic  of  the  lower  strata,  which  largely  con- 
sist of  earth,  ashes,  and  innumerable  potsherds.  When  he 
had  reached  a  depth  of  nine  feet  from  the 
'~^  top  of  the  solid  structure,  —  in  other  words, 
^  had  descended  about  four  feet  below  the 
bottom  of  the  ancient  curb  on  the  southeast 
side  of  the  stage-tower,  —  he  found  a  large 
quantitv^  of  fragments  of  terra-cotta  water 
T-Pipe  Joint  pipes  of  the  form  here  shown.  Though 
the  reports  before  me  offer  no  satisfactory 
clue  as  to  their  precise  use,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
they  belong  to  the  real  pre-Sargonic  period.      I  will  try  to 

^   ♦'  Several  hundred  of  these  objects  were  found  vvithin  a  radius  of  five 
feet." 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      397 

explain  their  purpose  later,  Haynes'  interpretation  being 
better  passed  over  in  silence. 

4.  The  explorer's  curiosity  was  aroused  at  once,  and 
having  sunk  his  shaft  a  few  feet  deeper  at  the  spot  where 
the  greatest  number  of  these  terra-cotta  pipes  were  lying, 
he  made  one  of  the  most  far-reaching  single  discoveries 
in  the  lower  strata  of  Nippur.  After  a  brief  search  he 
came  upon  a  very  remarkable  drain  (No.  9),  reminding 
us  of  the  advanced  system  of  canalization,  as  e.  g.  we  find 
it  in  Paris  at  the  present  time.  It  ran  obliquely  under  the 
rectangular  building  described  above,  starting,  as  I  believe, 
at  a  corner  of  the  early  sanctuary,  but  evidently  having 
fallen  into  disuse  long  before  the  L-shaped  building  was 
erected.  It  could  still  be  traced  for  about  six  feet  into  the 
interior  of  the  ruins  underlying  the  ziggurrat.  But  its 
principal  remains  were  disclosed  in  the  open  court,  into 
which  it  extended  double  that  length,  so  that  its  tolerably 
preserved  mouth  lay  directly  below  the  ancient  curb,  — 
a  fact  of  the  utmost  importance.  For  it  constitutes  a  new 
argument  in  favor  of  the  theory  previously  expressed  that 
this  curb  marked  the  line  of  the  earliest  southeast  enclosure 
of  the  ziggurrat,  or  whatever  formerly  mav  have  taken  the 
place  of  the  latter.  But  it  also  follows  that  a  gutter  of 
some  kind,  which  carried  the  water  to  a  safe  distance,  must 
have  existed  in  this  neighborhood  outside  the  curb. 

No  sooner  had  Haynes  commenced  removing  the  debris 
from  the  ruined  aqueduct  than  he  found,  to  his  great  aston- 
ishment, that  it  terminated  in  a  vaulted  section  3  feet  long 
and  was  built  in  the  form  of  a  true  elliptical  arch,  —  the 
oldest  one  thus  far  discovered.  The  often  ventilated  ques- 
tion as  to  the  place  and  time  of  origin  of  the  arch  was 
thereby  decided  in  favor  of  ancient  Babylonia.^  The  bot- 
tom of  this  reliable  witness  of  pre-Sargonic  civilization  lies 

^  A  similar  arch,  though  not  quite   as   old,  was  soon  afterwards  unearthed 
in  Tello.      Comp.  pp.  251,  seq.,  above. 
30 


398  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

fifteen  feet  below  Naram-Sin's  pavement,  or  ten  feet  below 
the  base  of  the  curb,  which  it  probably  antedates  by  a  cen- 
tury or  two.  We  may  safely  assign  it,  therefore,  to  the 
end  of  the  fifth  pre-Christian  millennium.  It  presented  a 
number  of  interesting  peculiarities.  Being  2  feet  i  inch 
high  (inside  measurement),  and  having  a  span  of  i  foot  8 
inches  and  a  rise  of  i  foot  i  inch,  it  was  constructed  of  well 
baked  plano-convex  bricks  laid  on  the  principle  of  radiating 
voussoirs.  These  bricks  measured  ii  hy  6  hj  2j4  inches, 
were  light  yellow  in  color,  and  bore  certain  marks  on  their 
upper  or  convex  surface,  which  had  been  made  either  by 
pressing  the  thumb  and  index  finger  deeply  into  the  clay  in 
the  middle  of  the  brick,  or  bv  drawing  one  or  more  fingers 
lengthwise  over  it.  Primitive  as  they  doubtless  are,  they 
do  not  (as  Haynes  inferred)  "  represent  the  earliest  type 
of  bricks  found  at  Nippur  or  elsewhere  in  Babylonia,"  — 
which  are  rather  smaller  and  sometimes  a  little  thicker, — 
though  for  a  considerable  while  both  kinds  were  used  along- 
side each  other  and  often  in  the  same  building.^  The  curve 
of  the  arch  was  effected  "  by  w'edge-shaped  joints  of  the 
simple  clav  mortar  used  to  cement  the  bricks."  "  On  the 
top  of  its  crown  was  a  crushed  terra-cotta  pipe  about  3  or 
2}4  inches  in  diameter,"  the  meaning  of  which  Haynes  de- 
clares unknown.  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  it  served  a 
purpose  similar  to  the  holes  provided  at  regular  intervals 
in  our  modern  casing  walls  of  terraces,  etc.  ;  in  other  words, 
that  the  pipe  was  intended  to  give  exit  to  the  rain  water 

^  Thus,  e.  ^.,  in  a  drain  discovered  by  the  fourth  expedition  in  the  east  sec- 
tion of  the  temple  court  at  the  lowest  level  of  anv  of  the  baked  brick  con- 
structions hitherto  excavated  at  NufFar.  It  contained  bricks  of  the  size  i  2  by  5  7/^ 
by  2i^  inches,  and  others  measuring  only  8^  by  4^  by  2  inches,  while  at 
the  foundation  of  the  northeast  city  gate  of  Nippur  the  two  kinds  of  bricks 
marked  two  pre-Sargonic  periods  succeeding  each  other  precisely  as  in  the 
two  lowest  buildings  of  Mound  B  at  Tello  (comp.  p.  241,  above).  Comp. 
also  p.  251,  above.  He  who  built  the  drain  in  part  doubtless  used  older 
material. 


The  Earliest  Babylonian  Arch  known.      About  4000  b.  c. 

Seen  from  the  inside  of  a  -vaulted  tunnel.     Obseri'e  the  T-shaped  brick  construction  at  its  opening, 
and  a  portion  of  the  tivo  clay  pipes  imbedded  in  its  bottom. 


DURING   19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      399 

percolating  the  soil  behind  and  above  it,  and  in  this  way  to 
prevent  the  softening  of  the  clay  cement  between  the  bricks 
of  the  arch,  and  the  caving-in  of  the  whole  vault  which 
would  result  from  it.  This  explanation  being  accepted,  it 
necessarily  follows  that  the  floor  of  the  court  surrounding 
the  earliest  sanctuary  was  not  paved  with  burned  bricks,  an 
inference  entirely  confirmed  by  the  excavations. 

There  is  much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  theory  that  this 
skilfully  planned  tunnel  was  arched  over  originally  along  its 
entire  length.  Like  its  vault,  the  lower  part  of  the  aque- 
duct presented  several  most  surprising  features.  "  Just  be- 
neath the  level  of  the  pavement  and  in  the  middle  of  the 
water  channel  were  two  parallel  terra-cotta  tiles,  8  inches  in 
diameter,  with  a  6-inch  flanged  mouth."  Haynes,  regard- 
ing this  tunnel  as  a  drain  rather  than  the  protecting  struc- 
ture for  a  drain,  was  at  a  loss  to  explain  their  presence  and 
significance.  They  were  laid  in  clay  mortar  and  consisted 
of  single  joints  or  sections,  each  2  feet  long,  cemented 
together  by  the  same  material.  We  may  raise  the  question  : 
Why  are  there  two  small  pipes  instead  of  one  large  one  ? 
Evidently  because  they  carried  the  water  from  two  difl^er- 
ent  directions  to  a  point  inside  the  sacred  enclosure,  where 
they  met  and  passed  through  the  arched  tunnel  together. 
They  surely  testify  to  a  most  highly  developed  system  of 
drainage  in  the  very  earliest  period  of  Babylonian  history. 
I  have,  therefore,  no  doubt  that  the  so-called  "water- 
cocks  "  previously  mentioned  served  some  purpose  in  con- 
nection with  this  complicated  system  of  canalization,  and 
that  in  all  probability  they  are  to  be  regarded  as  specially 
prepared  joints  intended  to  unite  terra-cotta  pipes  meeting 
each  other  at  a  right  angle. 

The  mouth  of  the  tunnel  was  provided  with  a  T-shaped 
construction  of  plano-convex  bricks,  which  Haynes  is  in- 
clined to  consider  as  "  the  means  employed  for  centring 
the  arch,"  or  as    "  a  device  to  exclude  domestic  animals. 


400  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

like  sheep,  from  seeking  shelter  within  it  against  the  piti- 
less sun's  rays  in  midsummer,"  while  the  present  writer 
rather  sees  in  it  a  strengthening  pillar  erected  to  protect 
the  most  exposed  part  of  the  tunnel  at  the  point  where 
the  arching  proper  begins  and  the  side  walls  are  most 
liable  to  yield  to  the  unequal  pressure  from  the  surround- 
ing mass  of  earth.  That  the  last-mentioned  view  is  the 
more  plausible  and  the  explanation  of  the  single  pipe  placed 
over  the  arch  as  given  above  is  reasonable,  follows  from 
what  happened  in  the  course  of  the  excavations.  A  few 
months  after  Haynes  had  removed  the  brick  structure  with 
its  two  arms,  he  reported  suddenly  that  the  arch  had  been 
"  forced  out  of  its  shape,  probably  from  the  unequal  pres- 
sure of  the  settling  mass  above  it,  which  had  been  drenched 
with  rain  water."  Truly  the  original  purpose  of  these  sim- 
ple means,  which  had  secured  the  preservation  of  the  arch 
for  six  thousand  years,  could  not  have  been  demonstrated 
more  forcibly.  x\t  the  same  time,  Haynes,  who  never 
thought  of  this  occurrence  as  having  any  bearing  upon  the 
W'hole  question,  could  not  have  paid  a  higher  compliment 
to  the  inventive  genius  and  the  extraordinary  forethought 
of  the  ancient  Babylonian  architects. 

Like  all  other  parts,  the  long  side  walls  of  this  unique 
tunnel  were  built  with  remarkable  care.  They  consisted  of 
eleven  courses  of  bricks  laid  in  clay  mortar  —  a  sure  in- 
dication that  the  tunnel  itself  was  not  intended  to  carry 
water. ^  The  six  lowest  courses,  the  eighth,  the  tenth,  and 
eleventh,  were  placed  flatwise  with  their  long  edge  pre- 
sented to  view,  while  the  seventh  and  ninth  courses  were 
arranged  on  their  long  edges  like  books  on  a  shelf  with 
their  small  edge  visible.      Considering  all  the  details  of  this 

1  In  the  earliest  days  of  Babylonian  architecture,  bitumen  is  the  regular 
cement  used  for  important  baked  brick  walls  constantly  washed  by  water. 
Comp.  p.  252,  above.  Small  gutters  and  similar  conduits  carrying  water 
over  open  places,  etc.,  show  clay  mortar  occasionally. 


DURING  19T1I  CENTURY :  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      401 


excellent  system  of  canalization  in  the  fifth  pre-Christian 
millennium,  which  not  long  ago  was  regarded  as  a  prehis- 
toric period,  we  may  be  pardoned  for  asking  the  question  : 
Wherein  lies  the  often  proclaimed  progress  in  draining  the 
capitals  of  Europe  and  America  in  the  twentieth  century  of 
our  own  era  ?  It  would  rather  seem  as  if  the  methods 
of  to-day  are  little  different  from  what  they  were  in  ancient 
Nippur  or  Calneh,  one  of  the  four  cities  of  the  kingdom  of 
"  Nimrod,  the  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord  "  (Gen.  10:9, 
jd-^Ojat  the  so-called 
"  dawn  of  civiliza- 
tion," —  a  some- 
what humiliating 
discovery  for  the 
fast  advancing  spirit 
of  the  modern  age  ! 
How  many  un- 
counted centuries  of 
human  develop- 
ment may  lie  be- 
yond that  marvel- 
1  o  u  s  age  repre- 
sented  by  the 
vaulted  tunnel  with 
the  two  terra-cotta 
pipes  imbedded  in 
cement  at  its  bot- 
tom, four  feet  be- 
low the  former 
plain  level  of  "  the 
land  of  Shinar  "  ! 

B,  The  results 
obtained  by  Haynes  in  excavating  the  space  between 
the  ancient  curb  and  the  later  enclosing  wall  of  the 
ziggurrat    cannot    be     considered    separately,   as    they   are 


Pre-Sargonic  Drain  in  Terra-Cotta 
About  4§oo  B.  C. 


402  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

not  only  less  conspicuous  than  those  just  described,  but 
have  been  reported  in  such  a  manner  as  to  defy  all  efforts 
to  comprehend  them  from  any  point  of  view.  At  different 
levels  and  apparently  belonging  to  different  epochs,  he  found 
perpendicular  drains  almost  everywhere  in  the  court.  They 
were  constructed  of  single  terra-cotta  rings,  sometimes  with 
perforations  in  their  sides,  placed  above  each  other,  and  oc- 
casionally provided  with  a  bell-shaped  top-piece,  in  one  case^ 
even  bounded  by  a  terra-cotta  floor,  with  a  rim  around  it 
and  made  in  four  sections.  The  level  at  which  the  opening 
of  the  lowest  perpendicular  drain  seems  to  occur  lies  ten 
and  a  quarter  to  eleven  feet  below  Naram-Sin's  pavement, 
according  to  my  own  measurements  of  the  remains  of 
Haynes'  excavated  antiquities.  It  is  about  identical  with 
that  which  I  ascertained  from  later  researches  at  the  ruins 
as  the  original  plain  level.  Here  and  there  Haynes  struck  • 
a  small  piece  of  pavement,  which  he  explained  as  a  fire- 
place, because  of  the  ashes  seen  near  and  upon  it.  At 
some  places  he  unearthed  fragments  of  gently  sloping  water 
conduits,  at  others  wells  built  of  plano-convex  bricks  laid  in 
herring-bone  fashion,^  at  still  others  low  walls,  remains  of 
rooms,  too  nearly  ruined,  according  to  his  statements,  to 
allow  of  a  restoration  of  their  ground  plan.  But  above  all, 
he  discovered  many  large  terra-cotta  jars  in  various  forms 
and  sizes,  and  without  any  order,  standing  in  the  rubbish 
around  and  below  them.  Wherever  he  dug  he  came  upon 
"  a  multitude  of  potsherds  scattered  profusely  through  the 
vast  accumulation  of  debris,  earth,  decomposed  refuse  matter 
and  ashes."  The  lowest  vase  of  this  large  type  found 
whole  by  him  stood  about  twenty  feet  below  Naram-Sin's 

1  This  special  drain,  shown  in  the  illustration  on  p.  40 1 ,  descended  six  and 
a  half  feet  and  had  an  average  diameter  of  2  3^  feet. 

2  Comp.  the  illustration  below  ("Section  of  a  Pre-Sargonic  Well,  Bricks 
laid  in  Herring-bone  Fashion  " )  in  the  chapter  «' On  the  Topography  of 
Ancient  Nippur." 


DURING   IDTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      403 


pavement.  Haynes'  idea  is  that  all  these  vases — and  he 
excavated  no  less  than  fifteen  at  one  place  within  a  compar- 
atively small  radius  —  served  "for  the  ablutions  of  the  pil- 
grims," while  some  of  the  drains  he  regards  as  urinals  and 
the  like.  To  what  inferences  are  we  driven  by  his  reports  ! 
The  entire  sacred  precinct  of  the  earliest  ziggurrat  of  Bel 
one  huge  lavatory  and  water-closet  situated  from  nine  to 
twenty  feet  below  the  ancient  level  of  the  plain  ! 

A  few  additional  facts  which  I  have  been  able  to  gather 
after  much  toil  from  his  reports  and  descriptions  of  photo- 
graphs may  follow  as  an  attempt  on  my  part  to  complete 
the  strange  picture  of  these  lowest  excavations.  They  have 
been  arranged  according  to  the  levels  given  by  Haynes.  Yet 
be  it  understood  expressly  that  the  present  writer  cannot 
always  be  held  responsible  for  the  correctness  of  the  recorded 
observations.  A  little  below  the  pavement  of  Naram-Sin 
there  seems  to  have 
been  "  a  very  large 
bed  of  black  [and 
gray]  ashes  of  un- 
known extent,  vary- 
ing in  depth  from  i 
to  ii^  feet."  The 
next  objects  below 
this  which  attracted 
Haynes' attention  are 
"  a  fragment  of  un- 
baked clay  bearing 
the  impression  of  a 
large  seal  cylinder, 
and  a  large  vase,  i  feet 
8  inches  in  height, 
which  contained  the  skeleton  of  a  child,  several  animal 
bones,  and  small  vases."  The  importance  of  this  unique 
find  as  the  first   sure  example   of  a  pre-Sargonic   burial  is 


Pre-Saigonic  Clay  Tablet 


404  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

apparent.  We  therefore  look  naturally  for  further  details. 
But  our  search  is  unsuccessful.  The  notes  before  us  con- 
tain nothing  beyond  what  I  have  stated  and  the  remark 
that  "  the  skeleton  is  by  no  means  complete ;  even  parts 
of  the  skull  have  decayed." 

At  about  the  same  level  ("  two  feet  below  the  pavement  " 
mentioned),  but  evidently  at  another  locality,  Haynes 
reached  another  "  bed  of  mingled  light  gray  ashes  and  earth 
not  less  than  9  feet  in  diameter  and  perhaps  8  inches  in 
extreme  depth."  It  contained  two  seal  cylinders,^  one  gold 
bead,  one  badly  corroded  silver  bead,  two  hundred  stone 
beads,  "  chiefly  of  a  dull  gray  slate  color,  quite  in  contrast 
to  the  more  highly  colored  beads  of  agate,  jasper,  etc.,  gen- 
erallv  found  in  these  mounds,"  and  six  finger-rings  made 
of  several  silver  wires  each  about  j4  o(  an  inch  in  diam- 
eter. 

Our  interest  is  roused  again  by  a  label  accompanying  a 
photograph.  It  reads  :  "  A  large  covered  jar  set  in  a  dais 
of  brick- work.  Its  top  is  four  feet  below  the  level  of 
Naram-Sin's  pavement."  We  ask  at  once  :  Was  there  any- 
thing in  it  to  show  its  purpose — ashes,  earth,  deposits  of 
some  kind  ?  The  veil  drops  ;  we  hear  nothing  more  about 
it.  From  the  same  stratum  we  have  "  a  perfect  and  well 
wrought  copper  nail,  13^  inches  long,"  and  the  fragment 
of  a  copper  knife  [or  sword?],  43s  inches  long  and 
i5/i6  inches  wide.  "Five  archaic  tablets"  are  also  re- 
ported to  have  been  found  "  not  less  than  four  feet  be- 
low the  level  of  the  same  pavement."  They  are  "  rudely 
fashioned,  and  appear  to  be  inscribed  with  numbers  only  rep- 
resented bv  straight  and  curved  lines  in  groups  of  two,  three, 
nine,  and  ten.  In  one  instance  a  column  of  nine  curved 
marks  made  by  the  thumb  nail  is  flanked  on  either  side  by  a 

1  One  in  bone.  "It  is  deeply  and  rather  rudely  engraved  with  two  large 
birds  standing  upright  with  outstretched  wings."'  «'  Between  the  birds  is  an 
unknown  animal  form." 


DURING  19TJI  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      405 


Exercise  Tablet  ut  a  Child 
From  the  pre-Sargonic  Fire  Necropolis 


column  of  ten  straight  lines,  made  by  the  use  of  some  other 
instrument  than  the  stylus.  One  tablet  has  a  single  group 
of  nine  marks  on 
one  side  of  the  tab- 
let, and  on  the  op- 
posite side  are  two 
groups  of  two  lines 
or  marks  each." 
This  description  of 
the  first  pre-Sar- 
gonic  cuneiform 
tablets  found  in  situ 
at  Nippur  is  brief 
and  lacks  essential 
details,  but  for  the  time  being  it  sufficed,  as  the  present  writer 
was  expected  to  examine  the  originals  later  in  Constantinople, 
and  therefore  had  an  opportunity  to  verify  and  supplement 
the  reports  sent  from  the  field.  He  found  them  to  be 
the  school  exercises  of  a  Babylonian  child  living  in  the 
fifth  pre-Christian  millennium.  But  the  case  unfortunately 
was  different  with  regard  to  the  many  large  pre-Sargonic 
vases  unearthed  in  the  lower  strata  of  the  court  of  the  zig- 
gurrat.  Precious  as  these  witnesses  of  a  hoary  antiquity 
appear  to  us  as  welcome  links  in  the  history  of  archaeology, 
they  do  not  seem  to  have  been  viewed  by  Haynes  in  the 
same  light.  He  took  photographs  of  a  few  of  the  jars  and 
caldrons,  but  he  saved  none  of  the  originals,  though  quite  a 
number  of  them  were  discovered  whole  or  only  slightly 
broken,  and  others,  which  were  dug  out  in  fragments,  could 
have  been  restored  without  difficulty.  It,  indeed,  any^  was 
packed  and  forwarded  with  the  other  excavated  antiquities, 
it  surely  was  not  accompanied  by  a  label,  and  consequently 
has  not  been  identified. 

The  lack  of  accurate  information  is  especially  telt  in  con- 
nection with  the  following  two  specimens   of  early  Babylo- 


406  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

nian  pottery  which  are  reported  to  have  been  found  in  a 
room  the  walls  of  which  were  1 1  feet  high  and  lay  entirely 
below  Naram-Sin's  pavement.  How  large  this  room  was, 
whether  it  had  any  door,  and  other  necessary  details  are  not 
stated.  It  contained  two  open  vases  about  fourteen  feet 
distant  from  each  other.^  They  stood  in  their  original  po- 
sitions at  two  different  levels,  the  one  being  placed  about 
two  and  a  half  feet  higher  than  the  other.  We  notice  re- 
markable differences  also  with  regard  to  their  forms  and 
sizes.  One  was  bell-shaped,  and  had  a  fiat  bottom  about 
twice  as  large  in  diameter  as  its  mouth.  The  other  was  a 
little  over  two  feet  high,  measured  one  foot  nine  inches  across 
the  top,  and  was  decorated  with  a  rope  pattern.^ 

In  descending  a  little  farther  and  reaching  a  level  of  fif- 
teen feet  below  the  often  mentioned  pavement,  Haynes 
picked  up  "  a  fragment  of  red  lacquered  pottery  "  so  much 
superior  in  quality  to  "  anything  unearthed  in  the  strata 
subsequent  to  the  time  of  Ur-Gur,"  that  he  at  first  doubted 
whether  it  really  belonged  to  that  ancient  period.  But  soon 
afterwards  he  obtained  another  red  piece  twenty-three  feet 
below  the  line  of  demarcation  given  above,  and  a  small 
fragment  of  a  black  cup  of  the  same  high  degree  of  work- 
manship three  feet  below  that.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  to- 
day that  similar  vases  occur  also  in  the  lowest  strata  of  Susa 
in  Persia  and  in  the  earliest  Egyptian  ruins. 

We  cannot  close  this  brief  resume  of  Haynes'  activity  in 
the  lowest  strata  of  the  temple  mound  without  mentioning 
briefiy  that  he  found  "a  fragment  of  black ^  clay  bearing 
several  human  forms  in  relief  upon  its  curved  surface,"  also 
twenty-three  feet  below  Naram-Sin's  pavement,  and  another 

1  According  to  mv  estimate,  the  accuracy  of  which  I  cannot  guarantee. 

-  Comp.,  also,  the  illustration  published  in  Hilprecht,  "  The  Bab.  Exp.  of 
the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.  i,  part  2,  plate  xxvii.  It  appears  to  have 
been  found  in  a  fine  state  of  preservation  according  to  the  photograph,  but 
according  to  Haynes'  report  it  was  "too  much  broken  to  be  removed." 

^  This  seems  to  have  been  blackened  bv  fire. 


DURING  19TII   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA       407 


larger  piece  two  feet  deeper ;  and  furthermore,  that  he  took 

a   small  gray  terra-cotta  vase,  which   he  fortunately  saved, 

from  the  layer  between  these  two 

objects   and   described   by  him  as 

being    "  literally   filled    with    pot- 
sherds of  small  size,  and  generally 

brick  red  in  color."   He  concludes 

his    observations    by  stating   that 

"  the    lowest  strata  show   a  large 

proportion     of    black    ashes    and 

fine    charcoal    mingled    with    the 

earth,"    but    contain    "  potsherds 

in     only     moderate     quantities ;  ' 

and  that  "  the  very  earliest  traces 

of     civilization     at     Nippur"  — 

thirty     feet     below     Naram-Sin's 

pavement  !  —  "  are    ashes    where 

fires  were  built  on  the  level  plain." 

But  Haynes'    "  level   plain "    lies 

rather    eighteen    to    nineteen   feet 

below  where  it  actually  was.      He  will,  therefore,  pardon  us 

for  looking  for  a  more  reasonable  explanation  of  these  re- 
markable ashes  and  potsherds  dis- 
covered  —  as  the  Babylonian 
scribes  would  sav  —  in  "  the 
breast  of  the  earth,"  around  the 
sanctuarv  of  Bel,  instead  of  ac- 
cepting his  own,  according  to 
which  "  thev  mark  the  level  of 
the  alluvial  plain  where  the  first 
inhabitants  grazed  their  flocks  and 
made  their  primitive  abodes." 

In  view  of  the  prominent  posi- 
tion which  the  temple  of  Bel,  as 

the  oldest  and  most   renowned   sanctuary  of  all  Babylonia, 


Earliest  Vase  from 
Nippur 


Pre-Sargonic  Cup 


408  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

occupied  in  the  political  and  civil  life  of  its  population, 
it  has  been  necessary  to  lay  before  the  reader  all  the  princi- 
pal facts  which  I  could  extricate  from  the  often  obscure  re- 
ports at  my  disposal,  in  order  to  enable  him  to  comprehend 
the  condition  and  characteristic  features  of  the  ruins  and  to 
acquaint  himself  with  the  history  and  methods  of  their 
exploration.  My  review  of  Haynes'  work  on  the  western 
side  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil  will  have  to  be  briefer,  as  he,  like 
Peters,  never  attempted  to  explore  those  mounds  systemat- 
ically, but,  on  the  whole,  was  satisfied  with  recovering  all 
the  tablets  and  other  antiquities  from  the  numerous  unbaked 
brick  buildings  which  they  contained.  Most  of  the  twenty 
thousand  cuneiform  records  and  fragments  excavated  be- 
tween 1893  and  1896  in  the  long  ridge  limited  by  the 
numbers  VI  and  VIII  on  the  plan  of  the  ruins  (p.  305)  are 
lists  (and  a  few  contracts)  dated  in  the  reigns  of  Cassite 
rulers  (about  1500-1250  b.  c),  several  of  which  show  ex- 
ceedingly interesting  and  peculiar  seal  impressions.  Some 
two  or  three  thousand  belong  to  the  third  pre-Christian 
millennium.  They  include  many  so-called  contracts  (and 
receipts)  from  the  time  of  the  kings  of  the  dynasties  of  Ur, 
(N)isin,  Larsa,  and  Babylon.^  There  are  a  few  letters  and 
literary  tablets  among  them,  which  may  originally  have 
formed  part  of  the  temple  library  situated  on  the  opposite 
bank  (IV)  of  the  canal.  The  neo- Assyrian,  Chaldean  and 
Persian  dynasties  are  represented  by  about  twelve  hundred 
contract  tablets. 

More  than  seven  hundred  of  these  are  of  especial  im- 
portance. At  the  end  of  May,  1893,  they  were  discovered 
in  one  of  the  rooms  of  a  ruined  building  at  a  depth  of 
twenty  feet  below   the  surface   (VIII   on   the  plan  of  the 

^  I  remember,  e.  g.,  ^  tablet  dated  in  the  government  of  Ur-Ninib  of 
(N)isin,  about  five  hundred  to  eight  hundred  dated  according  to  Rim-Sin's 
new  era  (fall  of  (N)isin),  several  dated  in  the  reign  of  a  king  Bel-bani,  and 
a  few  dated  in  the  reigns  of  other  kings  previously  not  known.     Comp.  p.  382. 


DURING   19™   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      409 

ruins,  p.  305).  The  great  care  with  which  they  had  been 
made,  the  exceptionally  pure  and  soft  clay  chosen,  and  the 
large  number  of  fine  seal  impressions  exhibited  by  many  of 
them  attracted  my  attention  at  once.  Upon  closer  examina- 
tion they  proved  to  belong  to  the  business  archives  of  a  great 
Babylonian  firm,  Murashu  Sons,  bankers  and  brokers  at 
Nippur,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Artaxerxes  I.  (464-424 
B.  c.)  and  Darius  II.  (423-405  b.  c),  in  whose  reigns  the 
documents  are  dated.     According  to  a  system  better  known 


Clay  Tablet  with  Seal  Impressions  from  the  Archives  of  Murashu  Sons 


from  the  later  Roman  Empire,  this  banking-house  acted  also 
as  an  agent  for  the  Persian  kings,  from  whom  it  had  rented 
the  taxes  levied  upon  their  Babylonian  subjects  at  Nippur 
and  neighboring  districts.  The  contents  of  these  730  tab- 
lets accordingly  had  an  unusual  interest.  The  active  life 
and  motion  which  pulsated  in  the  streets  of  the  famous  "  city 
of  Bel,"  in  the  fore-courts  of  its  temple,  and  in  the  fields  on 
the  palm  and  corn-laden  banks  of  "  the  great  canal  "  at  the 
31 


410  EXI'LOEATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

time  when  Ezra  and  Neheniiah  led  the  descendants  of  Nebu- 
chadrezzar's exiled  Jews  from  these  very  plains  to  Palestine, 
were  unfolded  vividly  before  our  eyes.  We  were  enabled  to 
confirm  and  supplement  what  the  Greeks  tell  us  about  the 
large  number  of  Persians  settled  in  the  various  provinces  of 
the  vast  empire.  We  became  acquainted  with  the  names  and 
titles  of  the  different  officers  —  among  them  the  databari^ 
known  from  Daniel  3  :  2,  seq.  —  who  were  stationed  all  over 
the  fertile  country  between  the  lower  Euphrates  and  Tigris, 
to  look  after  the  interests  of  their  government. 

From  early  days  Babylonia  was  a  land  of  many  tongues, 
but  at  no  other  period  of  its  varied  history  are  we  so  im- 
pressed with  the  great  proportion  of  the  foreign  element  in 
this  rich  alluvial  plain  as  during  the  centuries  following  the 
fall  of  Babvlon,  538  b.  c.  The  population  of  Babylonia  at 
the  time  of  Artaxerxes  I  and  Darius  II  appears  about  as 
thoroughly  mixed  as  that  of  the  United  States  in  our  own 
time.  And  as  the  emigrants  from  Europe  and  Asia  brought 
their  customs  and  religions,  their  languages  and  the  local 
and  personal  names  of  their  native  lands  to  their  new  settle- 
ments in  the  New  World,  so  Persians  and  Medians,  Ara- 
means  and  Sabeans,  Judeans  and  Edomites,  etc.,  transplanted 
those  of  their  former  abodes,  from  which  they  often  had 
been  carried  away  by  the  vicissitudes  of  war,  to  ancient 
Babylonia.  Very  numerous  are  Persian  and  Aramean  per- 
sonal proper  names  in  these  documents.  Unusually  large 
is  the  number  of  Jewish  names  known  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, especially  from  the  books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  coH^derable  number  ot  the 
Jewish  prisoners  carried  away  by  Nebuchadrezzar  were  set- 
tled in  Nippur  and  its  neighborhood,  where  many  of  their 
descendants  continued  to  live  as  long  as  the  city  existed 
(about  900  A.  D.),  to  judge  from  the  many  inscribed  He- 
brew bowls  excavated  everywhere  in  the  upper  strata  of 
its  ruins.     The  Talmudic  tradition  which  identifies  Nippur 


DURING   19111  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      411 

with  the  Biblical  Calneh  gains  new  force  in  the  light  of 
these  facts,  strengthened  by  the  argument  that  the  earliest 
and  most  important  Babylonian  city,  which  occupies  the  first 
place  in  the  Sumerian  story  of  the  creation,  could  not  vvell 
have  been  omitted  by  the  writer  of  Genesis  lo:  lo.  And 
we  feel  we  tread  on  sacred  ground,  considering  that  even 
Ezekiel  himself,  while  among  the  captives  of  his  people  at 
Tel-Abib,^  while  admonishing  and  comforting  the  scattered 
inhabitants  of  Judah's  depopulated  cities,  and  while  seeing 
his  famous  visions  of  the  cherubims  on  the  banks  of  "  the 
river  Chebar  in  the  land  of  the  Chaldeans  "  (Ezek.  1:1,3; 

1  Since  the  publication  of  Tiele,  Ba/jy/.-Jssyr.  Geschichte,  p.  427,  the 
modern  commentators  have  begun  to  change  the  Hebrew  2^:2^  bn  ( T^^^- 
Abib,  "  Mound  of  the  ear  of  corn")  with  good  reason  into  the  Babylonian 
3"aS  bn,  Til-Ahiib,  "Mound  of  the  storm-flood,"  a  name  by  which  the 
Babylonians  used  to  denote  the  large  sand-hills  scattered  over  their  plain  even 
in  those  early  days.  Comp.  especially  the  late  Richard  Kraetzschmar's  Das 
Buck  E'zcchiel,  Gottingen,  1900,  pp.  5,  seq.,  34.  To-day  such  enormous 
sand-hills  are  found  in  several  districts  of 'Iraq,  notably  in  the  neighborhood  of 
|6kha,  Warka  (comp.  pp.  144  and  152,  above),  Tell-Ibrahim  (=  Cuthah, 
comp.  p.  277,  above),  and  NufFar.  Those  of  Nuffar  are  very  extensive,  but 
not  very  high.  They  rise  about  ten  to  thirty  feet  above  the  desert,  three  to 
four  miles  to  the  north  of  the  ruins.  I  regard  them  as  identical  with  the  777- 
Abi(^u)b  of  Ezekiel  chiefly  for  the  following  four  considerations:  1.  The 
archives  of  Murashu  Sons  proved  that  many  Jewish  exiles  actually  must  have 
been  settled  in  the  districts  around  Nippur.  2.  All  these  Babylonian  sand- 
hills, while  constantly  changing  their  aspect  within  the  area  covered  by  them 
owing  to  certain  whirlwinds,  and  gradually  extending  even  farther  into  the 
fertile  plain,  on  the  whole  have  remained  stationary,  as  we  can  infer  from  a 
comparison  of  the  reports  of  early  travellers  with  our  own  observations.  3. 
The  remarkably  large  number  of  Hebrew  bowls  found  everywhere  in  the 
smaller  mounds  within  a  radius  of  five  to  ten  miles  to  the  east  and  north 
of  NuiFar  testify  to  a  great  Jewish  settlement  in  these  regions  as  late  as  the 
seventh  century  of  our  own  era.  4.  The  extensive  sand-hill,  or  til-abub, 
of  Nuffar  lies  about  a  mile  or  more  to  the  east  o'i  the  ancient  bed  ot  the 
Shatt  en-Nil,  a  fact  which  agrees  most  remarkably  with  a  statement  in  Ezek. 
3:15,  according  to  which  the  prophet  went  from  the  Chebar  to  Tel-abi(ij)b, 
so  that  this  Jewish  colony  cannot  have  been  situated  in  the  immediate  fertile 
neighborhood  of  *«  the  great  canal." 


412  EXPLOHAriONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

3:15;  10:15),  Stood  in  the  very  shadow  of  Babylonia's  na- 
tional sanctuary,  the  crumbling  walls  of  the  great  temple  of 
Bel.  For  soon  after  the  business  archives  of  Murashu  Sons 
had  been  cleaned  and  catalogued  by  the  present  writer,  he 
was  fortunate  enough  to  discover  the  river  Chebar,  for 
which  hitherto  we  had  searched  the  cuneiform  literature  in 
vain,  in  the  nar  Kabariy  one  of  the  three  or  four  large  navi- 
gable canals  of  ancient  Nippur. 

The  question  arose  at  once,  which  one  of  these  canals 
still  to  be  traced  without  difficulty  by  their  lofty  embank- 
ment walls  represents  "  the  river"  under  consideration.  It 
seemed  natural  to  identify  "  the  Chebar,"  or  nar  Kabari, 
meaning  literally  "  the  great  canal,"  with  the  now  dry  bed  of 
the  Shatt  en-Nil,  which  passes  through  the  ruined  city.  But 
while  having  even  so  expressed  myself  in  my  lectures,  I  pre- 
ferred to  withhold  this  theory  from  my  introduction  to  vol. 
ix  of  our  official  publication  until  I  could  examine  the 
topography  of  the  entire  region  once  more  personally  and 
search  the  inscriptions  for  additional  material.  I  am  now 
prepared  to  furnish  the  required  proof  and  to  state  the  re- 
sults of  my  later  investigations  briefly  as  follows  :  i.  The 
largest  of  all  the  canals  once  watering  the  fields  of  Nippur 
is  often  written  ideographicallv  as  "  the  Euphrates  of  Nip- 
pur," a  name  occurring  even  in  the  old- Babylonian  inscrip- 
tions of  the  third  millennium.^  It  is  evident  that  only  the 
canal  on  which  Nippur  itself  was  situated,  /.  e.,  the  Shatt 
en-Nil  of  the  Arabs,  which  divides  the  mounds  into  two 
approximately  even  halves,  could  have  been  designated  in 
this  manner.  2.  An  examination  of  all  the  inscriptions  at 
my  disposal  revealed  the  fact  that  nar  Kahari  is  the  phonetic 
pronunciation  of  the  ideographic  writing  "The  Euphrates 
of  Nippur,"  and  therefore  also  the  former  Babylonian  name 

^  For  the  present  comp.  the  passages  quoted  hv  me  in  "  The  Bab.  Exp. 
of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.  ix,  p.  76,  and  the  cone  inscription  of 
Samsu-iluna  translated  below  (Fourth  Campaign ) . 


DURING  lOTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      413 

of  the  Shatt  en-Nil.  Hence  it  follows  that  "  the  river  Che- 
bar  in  the  land  of  the  Chaldeans  "  was  the  greatest  canal  of 
Babylonia  proper,  "the  great  canal  "  par  excellence^  which 
branched  off  from  the  Euphrates  somewhere  above  Babvlon 
and  ran  through  almost  the  whole  interior  of  the  countrv 
from  north  to  south.  It  was  the  great  artery  which  brought 
life  and  fertility  to  the  otherwise  barren  alluvial  plain  en- 
closed by  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  and  turned  the 
whole  interior  into  one  luxuriant  garden.  The  nar  Kabari 
had  the  same  significance  for  Nippur,  the  most  ancient  and 
renowned  city  of  the  countrv,  as  the  Euphrates  for  Sippara 
and  Babylon,  or  the  Nile  for  Egypt,  and  therefore  was 
called  most  appropriately  "  the  Euphrates  of  Nippur  "  by 
the  Sumerians,  "  the  great  canal"  bv  the  Semitic  Babylo- 
nians, and  the  "  river  Nile  "  bv  the  Arabic  population  of 
later  times.  In  some  parts  of  Southern  Babylonia  the  bed 
of  the  canal  was  wider  than  that  of  the  present  Euphrates 
below  Hilla,  while  its  average  depth  at  Nippur  measured 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet. 

Wherever  Havnes  drove  his  tunnels  into  the  real  Baby- 
lonian strata  of  the  long  ridge  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Shatt 
en-Nil,  he  came  upon  extensive  remains  of  mud  buildings, 
broken  tablets,  scattered   weights   and  seal  cylinders.      My 


Oblong  W'eight  in  Hematite 
Fifteen   (^shekels) 


examination  of  all  the  portable  antiquities  excavated  there 
led  in  every  case  to  the  same  result,  that  this  long-stretched 
mound  represents   the   business  quarter  of  ancient  Nippur, 


414 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


and  conceals  the  large  mercantile  houses,  the  shops  of  han- 
dicraftsmen, —  the  bazaars  of  the  city,  which  occupied  this 
site  at  least  trom  the  time  of  Ur-Gur,  and  probably  even 
from  the  davs  of  Sargon  I.  The  contents  of  the  archives 
of  the  firm  of  Murashu  Sons  ;  the  strictly  businesslike  char- 
acter of  all  the  neo-Babylonian  tablets  obtained  from  there  ; 
the  eighteen  thousand  administrative  lists  and  books  of  entry 
ot  the  Cassite  period  ;  the  thousands  of  case  tablets  of  the 
third  pre-Christian  millennium;  the  large  number  of  trian- 
gular clay  labels  —  and  more  espe- 
ciallv  fiftv-six  of  ellipsoidal  form 
found  together  in  one  room  —  all  of 
which  bear  a  short  legend  or  a  seal 
impression,  or  both  at  the  same  time, 
and  without  exception  are  provided 
with  holes  for  the  thread  by  which 
they  were  tied  to  sacks,  baskets, 
boxes,  merchandise  of  every  de- 
scription ;  ^  the  many  oblong"  and 
duck-shaped  weights  in  stone,  one 
(fragmentary)  even  sculptured  in  the 
form  of  a  resting  lamb  inscribed  with 
seven  lines  of  earlv  Babylonian  writ- 
ing, and  the  much  more  numerous  ones 
in  clay,  sometimes  evidently  belonging 
to  a  series  ;  the  exceptionallv  large  num- 
ber of  seal  cylinders,  as  a  rule  cracked, 
broken,  badly  effaced  or  otherwise  dam- 
aged by  fire,  which  for  the  greater  part  were  gathered  in 
the  accumulated  debris   of  the  ravines  or  in  the  loose  earth 


Triangular  Label  ("  One  Lamb, 
the  Shepherd  Uzi-ihi  ") 


Label  with  Seal  Impression 

y4/?0Ut  2200  B.    C. 


^  Haynes  regarded  them  as  amulets  or  charms,  a  pardonable  mistake,  as  he 
could  not  read  their  inscriptions. 

^  Among  them  the  fine  inscribed  hematite  weight  with  the  inscription, 
"  ten  shekels,  gold  standard,  the  damkar,''''  published  in  Hilprecht,  *•  The 
Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.  i,  part  2,  no.   132. 


DURING  lO'f"   CENTUR'Y :   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      415 

on  the  slopes  of  the  mounds,  —  these  and  many  other  facts 
and  considerations  which  cannot  be  set  forth  here  in  detail 
afford  positive  proof  for  the  correctness  of  my  theory. 

Some  of  the  houses  seem  to  have  covered  a  considerable 
area.  Haynes  calls  them  palace-like  buildings.  It  is,  there- 
fore, the  more  to  be  regretted  that  the  unscientific  method  of 
excavating  introduced  by  Peters  and  continued  by  Haynes 
especially  in  this  section,  where  confessedly  they  endeavored 
to  secure  the  largest  possible  amount  of  inscribed  material 
at  the  least  possible  outlay  of  time  and  money,  has  thus  far 
deprived  me  of  the  possibility  of  restoring  the  ground  plan 
and  describing  the  inner  arrangement  of  even  a  single  real 
Babylonian  business  house.  In  several  instances  "the  ar- 
chives were  found  in  the  very  position  in  which  they  had 
been   left   when  the  building  was  destroyed."     The  tablets 

were  "  placed  on  their  edges 
reclining  against  each  other  like 
a  shelf  of  leaning  books  in  an 
ill-kept  library  of  to-day."  As 
a  rule,  however,  they  lay 
broken  and  in  great  confusion 
on  the  ground,   or   they  were 

Ellipsoidal  Label.     Dated  in  the  Reign  of        ^^j-J^^     bctWeCn     the     laVCrS    of 
King  Ammisadugga  ,   ,  .    ,  ,   •    ,  '    j  i 

rubbish  which  covered  the 
floor.  Some  of  the  tablets,  particularly  those  of  the 
Cassite  period,  must  have  been  of  an  enormous  size. 
Restored  on  the  basis  of  excavated  fragments,  the  largest  un- 
baked tablet  was  lo  by  14  by  3  inches  and  the  largest  baked, 
16  bv  12  by  31^  inches.  As  most  of  the  tablets  discovered 
were  unbaked  or  baked  insufficiently,  they  not  only  are 
badlv  broken  and  chipped  off  everywhere,  but  they  have 
suffered  exceedingly  from  the  humidity  of  the  soil  in  which 
they  lav.  In  many  cases  the  salts  of  nitre  contained  in  the 
clay  had  crystallized  and  caused  the  gradual  disintegration 
of  complete   documents,  or  at  least,  the  flaking  off  of  the 


416 


EXPLOEAriOyS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


inscribed  surfaces.  Frequently  they  crumbled  to  dust 
inimediatelv  after  their  discovery  or  soon  afterwards,  on 
their  wav  from  Nuffar  to  Constantinople.  The  often 
advised  baking  of  such  tablets  was  not  only  useless,  but 
proved  repeatedly  even  most  damaging,  as  it  accelerated 
the  process  of  dissolution  and  hardened  the  dirt,  filling  the 
cuneiform  characters  to  such  a  degree  that  it  could  not  be 
removed  later.  Thus  far,  none  of  the  means  generally 
recommended  has  proved  an  effective  preservative  for  tab- 
lets doomed  to  destruction  long  before  they  are  discovered. 
While  the  large  mass  of  documents  obtained  from  this 
ridge  (VII-VTII)  has     to    do  with  transactions  of  private 

individuals,  there  are 
others  which  evidently 
have  reference  to  gov- 
ernment affairs  and  to 
the  business  adminis- 
tration of  the  temple. 
This  is  especially  the 
case  with  a  number  of 
tablets  excavated  in  the 
southeast  section  (VI), 
situated  opposite  the 
priests'  quarters  and  the 
temple  library  (IV). 
It  seems,  therefore, 
not  unlikely  that  the 
temple  owned  some  property  on  the  west  side  of  the  canal 
also,  and  that  a  large  government  building  once  occupied 
part  of  this  mound.  The  fragments  of  several  barrel  cyl- 
inders of  Sargon  of  Assyria  (722-705  b.  c.)  discovered  at  VI 
by  the  first  (comp.  pp.  3  12,  seq.y  above)  and  third  expeditions 
point  in  this  direction.  It  cannot  be  denied,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  a  number  of  the  objects  coming  from  these  hills 
most  assuredly  were  out  of  their  original  places,  and  very 


Cassite  Account  Tablet.      About  1400  B.  c. 


DURING   IDTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND   BABYLONIA      417 

probably  were  carried  at  different  times  from  the  temple 
quarters  to  the  west  part  of  the  city.  I  count  among  these 
antiquities  a  terra-cotta  dog  with  a  brief  neo-Babylonian 
legend  ;  several  stray  lapis  lazuli  discs  from  the  upper  strata 
with  votive  inscriptions  of  Kurigalzu,  Nazi-Maruttash    and 


Votive  Tablet  of  Ur-Enlil.      About  4000  b.  c. 

Upper  Section  :    Ur-Enlil  offering  a  libation  to  Enlii  (  Bel). 
Loiver  Section  :   A  pastoral  scene  [goat,  sheep,  herdsmen). 

Kadashman-Turgu  (about  1400  b.  c);  a  fine  inscribed 
terra-cotta  vase,  about  3  inches  high,  of  the  third  pre- 
Christian  millennium,  originally  filled  "  with  the  choicest 
oil"  and  presented  as  "a  bridal  gift"  to  some  deity;  the 
flat  round  ends  of  two  inscribed  terra-cotta  cones  found  in 


418  EXPLORATIONS   IN    lilliLE  LANDS 

1893    and    1895    respectively,  at  places    and    levels    widely 
apart  from   each    other,    and    containing    identical  inscrip- 
tions of  Damiqilishu,  a  little-known  "  powerful  king,  king  of 
(N)isin,  King  of  Shumer  and  Akkad,"^   who  "  restored  the 
great  wall  of  (N)isin  and  called  its  name  Damiqilishu-tnigir- 
Nifiiy  ("  D.  is  the  favorite  of  the  god  Ninib") ;  thre?  in- 
scribed unbaked  clay  prisms  of  the  same  period  ;    a  soap- 
stone  tablet  of  Dungi  of  Ur  recording  his  constructing  a 
temple    to    the    goddess    Damgalnunna    in   Nippur:'-    the 
very  ancient  exquisite  stele  of  Ur-Enlil,  a  high   officer  in 
the  service  of  Bel,^  and  several   other  valuable  votive  ob- 
jects, sculptured  and  inscribed.      Most  of  them  were  gath- 
ered in   the   loose  earth,  or  in  the  rubbish  which  had  accu- 
mulated at  the   foot  of  the  mounds  and  along  the  ancient 
bed  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil.     Haynes  discovered  even  a  brick 
stamp  of  Naram-Sin  and  fragments  of  others,  and  one  red- 
colored  stamped  brick  of  the  same  great  ruler,  of  which  he 
speaks  himself  as  not  having  been  found  in  situ. 

From  the  material  before  us  it  becomes  certain  that  this 
whole  ridge  must  have  been  occupied  from  the  earliest 
times  to  the  Christian  period.  The  numerous  slipper- 
shaped  coffins  with  their  ordinary  contents,  a  good  many 
Kufic  and  Arsacide  coins,  Hebrew  bowls,  the  fragments  of 
an  egg-shell  inscribed  with  Hebrew  letters  in  black  ink,  and 
other  antiquities  taken  by  Haynes  from  rooms  just  beneath 
the  crest  of  the  long-stretched  hill  belonged  to  the  latest 
inhabitants  of  Nippur  in  the  first  millennium  of  our  era. 
The  last  three  thousand  years  of  Babylonian  history  are 
represented  by  dated  business  documents  found  in  crude 
brick  structures  lying  one  above  another.  The  age  of  these 
houses  can  frequently  be  determined  also  from  the  different 
sizes  of  bricks  employed  in   them,  which  are  familiar  to  us 

^   Comp.  p.  382,  note  2. 

^  Comp.  Hilprecht,  /.  c,  vol.  i,  part  2,  no.   123. 

3  Comp.  the  illustration  on  the  previous  page  (417)- 


LURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND   BABYLONIA      419 

from  the  study  of  the  successive  strata  in  the  southeast  court 
of  the  ziggurrat.  The  deepest  trenches  and  tunnels  cut  by 
Haynes  into  different  parts  of  this  ridge  revealed  abundant 
plano-convex  bricks,  crude  and  baked,  with  the  well-known 
finger  impressions  which  characterize  the  pre-Sargonic  set- 
tlements everywhere  in  Babylonian  ruins. 

In  connection  with  the  last  statement  it  is  interesting  and 
important  to  know  that  not  far  from  the  place  which  indi- 
cates the  business  house  of  Murashu  Sons  on  our  plan  of 
the  ruins  (p.  305,  above),  Haynes  sank  a  shaft,  4  [?]  feet 
square,  through  nearly  ninety-eight  feet  of  debris,  the  last 
eighteen  or  nineteen  feet  of  which  lie  below  the  present  level 
of  the  desert.  Only  the  lowest  thirtv  feet  of  these  ancient 
remains  of  human  civilization  thus  examined  deserve  our 
attention,  as  the  shaft  was  by  far  too  narrow  to  determine 
details  and  differences  in  the  higher  strata  which  could  claim 
a  scientific  value.  Here,  as  at  the  temple  mound,  the  low- 
est thirty  feet  consist  principally  of  ashes,  potsherds,  and 
lumps  of  clay  worked  by  the  hand.  "  Numerous  traces  of 
fire  abound  everywhere."  ..."  The  fire  or  ash-pits  are 
still  clearly  shown."  .  .  .  "The  ashes  are  often  three  or 
more  inches  in  depth."  ..."  Occasionally  a  decayed  bone 
is  met  with."  ..."  Bits  of  charcoal  and  unconsumed 
brands  charred  "  are  mixed  with  ashes  and  earth.  In  view 
of  Haynes'  theorv  concerning  the  lowest  strata  of  the  court 
of  the  ziggurrat^  it  cannot  surprise  us  to  find  that  he  con- 
nects all  these  traces  wMth  the  daily  life  of  the  earliest  in- 
habitants, and  interprets  them  as  "  marking  the  places  where 
the  evening  camp-fires  were  built  bv  the  first  semi-migratory 
dwellers  on  this  spot." 

The  lowest  real  brick  structure  observed  bv  the  excava- 
tor was  about  thirty  feet  above  the  undisturbed  soil  ;  in 
other  words,  at  about  the  level  of  Naram-Sin's  pavement  in 
the  temple  mound.  We  are  led  to  this  period  also  by  an 
examination  of  the  crude  bricks,  which  measured  17  inches 


420 


EXPLORATIONS   IN    BIBLE  LANDS 


square  and  about  4  inches  thick.  What  was  the  nature  of 
this  ancient  structure?  "It  was  a  long,  narrow  cell,  5  feet 
9  inches  long,  i  foot  7  inches  wide,  and  i  foot  i  inch  high, 

a  grave  covered  by  a   gable  roof  made   of  similar  bricks, 

which  rested  on   the  sides  of  the   low  wall   and  met  in  an 
imaginary  ridge-pole  like  the  letter  A."      The  tomb  con- 
tained   nothing   but 


i 


>**f 


the  crumbling  re- 
mains "  of  a  me- 
dium-sized adult 
and  a  broken  vessel 
of  coarse  pottery." 

A  corbelled  arch 
of  crude  bricks  and 
"  a  vaulted  cellar  of 
burned  bricks,"  the 
latter  about  1 2  by 
8  feet  in  length  and 
breadth,  were  dis- 
covered somewhere 
at  "  a  low  level  "  in 
the  same  mounds. 
From  general  indi- 
cations, I  should  as- 
cribe them  to  about  2500  b.  c.  They  give  evidence  to  the 
fact  that  arches  and  vaults  were  by  no  means  uncommon 
in  ancient  Nippur,  but  as  accurate  details  have  not  been 
given  by  the  excavator,  we  must  be  satisfied  with  this  simple 
statement. 

In  August,  1893,  Haynes  began  a  search  for  the  original 
bed  and  embankment  of  the  Chebar.  He  accordingly  cut 
a  long  trench  into  the  narrowest  part  of  the  depression 
marked  V  on  the  plan  of  the  ruins  (p.  305),  and  directed 
it  from  the  middle  of  this  open  area  to  its  northeast  boun- 
dary  and  along  the  latter.     At   a  depth  of  twenty  and  a 


Coi-iR':i'->l  Ar.il  uf  Crude  Brick;. 
Ahdut  2joo  B.  C. 


DURING   19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      421 

half  feet  below  the  surface,  which  is  somewhat  higher  than 
the  present  level  of  the  desert,  he  reports  to  have  found  the 
ancient  bed  "  in  the  middle  of  the  stream."  The  north- 
eastern embankment  of  the  canal  proved  to  be  "  a  sloping 
bank  of  reddish  clay,"  so  that  the  natural  inference  would 
be  "  that  there  was  no  well-built  quay  at  this  point  "  of 
the  watercourse.  While  excavating  the  rubbish  accumu- 
lated in  the  bed  of  the  canal,  Haynes  unearthed  three 
large  fragments  of  a  round  terra-cotta  fountain  originally 
from  1 33  to  2  feet  in  diameter,  and  on  its  outer  face 
showing  a  group  of  birds  in  high  relief  coarsely  executed. 


Early  Babylonian  Terra-Cotta  Fountain  from  the  Bed  of  the  Chebar 

One  of  the  fragments  exhibits  a  richly  dressed  person  stand- 
ino;  on  the  backs  of  two  of  these  creatures,  through  the 
open  mouths  of  which  the  water  passed.  The  antiquity 
belongs  to  a  period  prior  to  2000  b,  c. 

It  is  unnecessary    to   follow  Haynes  through  all  the  trial 


422 


EXPLORATIoyS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


trenches  which  at  various  times  he  opened  in  the  mounds 
around  the  temple  complex.  Among  the  l^irthian  and 
Sassanian  graves  in  which  the  upper  strata  abound  every- 
where,   I    mention    particularly    one    containing    "  a    very 


Three  Jars  found  at  the  Head  of  a  Parthian  Coffin.      About  200  b.  c. 

high  bath-tub  coffin  "  and  three  jars  placed  around  the 
head.  The  latter  were  filled  with  as  many  beautiful  small 
alabaster  bottles,  a  large  number  of  decayed  pearls,  precious 
stones,  necklaces,  earrings,  nose-rings,  finger-rings,  one  in- 
scribed seal  cylinder  in  red  jasper  still  retaining  its  bronze 
mounting,  and  sixteen  uninscribed  ones,  several  scarabaei,  a 
pair  of  iron  tweezers,  and  remains  of  linen  and  woolen 
stuffs  showing  the  structure  and  fibre  of  the  fabrics,  and 
the  white  and  dark-brown  colors  of  the  threads.  Haynes 
opened  altogether  six  hundred  graves  in  the  different  parts 
of  Nuffar,  some  of  them  very  elaborate,  most  of  them, 
however,  being  slipper-  and  bath-tub-shaped  coffins  in 
terra-cotta.  Others  were  crude  brick  boxes  ;  many  con- 
sisted only  of  one  or  two  urns  greatly  varying  in  size  and 


DURING  lOTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      423 

form  ;  a  few  were  made  of  wood,  which  generally  had  crum- 
bled to  dust.  Nearly  fifty  representative  urns  and  coffins 
were  saved  and  sent  to  Constantinople.  One  gray  slipper- 
shaped  coffin  was  decorated  with  "  a  male  figure  with  sword 
and  short  tunic  over  a  long  shirt,  four  times  repeated  in  as 
many  panels."  Another  richly  ornamented  and  blue  enam- 
elled but  fragmentary  sarcophagus  of  the  same  type  showed 
"  six  human-headed  bulls  in  two  long,  narrow  panels."  By 
far   the   greatest    number  of  the    enamelled   slipper-shaped 


Blue  Enamelled  Slipper-Shaped  Coffin  with  Conventional  Female  Figures 

coffins  were  decorated  with  a  conventional  female  figure,  a 
pattern  seemingly  reserved  for  the  burial  of  women. 

The  northwest  mound  of  the  eastern  half  of  the  ruins 
yielded  a  few  unbaked  tablets  of  the  neo-Babylonian  and 
Assyrian  periods,  a  stray  stamped  brick  of  Dungi,  and  the 
largest  uninscribed  baked  brick  hitherto  discovered  at  Nuf- 
far,  measuring  no  less  than  20  inches  square.  In  the  upper 
strata  of  the  low  mounds  which  lie  about  midway  between 
the  temple  of  Bel  and  the  Shatt  en-Nil,  Haynes  unearthed 
a  peculiar  building  originally  covered  with  a  dome,  "  in  the 
style  of  the  ziarets  or  holy  tombs  of  India,  Persia,  and 
Turkey."      Its  ruined  walls,  which  formed  a  square  32  feet 


424  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

long,  were  constructed  of  specially  made  soft  yellow  baked 
bricks  {12  j4  inches  square  by  3  inches  thick)  laid  in  lime 
mortar.  They  were  6  feet  9  inches  thick,  and  still  stood 
7  feet  8  inches  high.  In  the  sides,  which  run  parallel  with 
the  four  faces  of  the  ziggurrat,  were  openings  7  feet  10 
inches  wide.  The  one  towards  the  southeast  was  partly 
occupied  by  an  altar,  which  stood  upon  a  raised  platform 
and  consisted  of  three  receding  stages.  Within  the  building 
and  exactly  in  front  of  the  altar  was  a  raised  block  of  crude 
bricks  "  smoothly  plastered  with  lime  mortar,"  like  the  sides 
of  the  latter  and  the  walls  of  the  edifice.  "  Upon  and  around 
the  altar  to  a  considerable  distance  from  it  were  wood  ashes 
6  inches  in  depth,  an  accumulation  that  could  not  have  been 
accounted  for  by  an  occasional  fire."  It  doubtless  repre- 
sents a  sanctuary  of  the  late  Parthian  period. 

The  most  important  discovery  reported  from  the  trenches 
in  the  western  section  of  the  same  mounds,  where  they  slope 
gradually  towards  the  Shatt  en-Nil,  is  the  quadrangular  terra- 
cotta lid  of  a  coffin  ornamented  with  the  rude  bas-relief  of  a 
lion.  It  belongs  to  the  same  age  as  the  building  just  men- 
tioned. For  a  few  days  excavations  were  carried  on  also  in 
the  great  elevation  to  the  east  of  the  temple.  They  revealed 
the  existence  of  unbaked  cuneiform  tablets  of  a  very  large  size 
in  a  part  of  the  ruins  scarcely  yet  touched  by  the  expedition. 
The  large  triangular  mound  to  the  south  of  the  temple  (in 
1889  designated  by  the  present  writer  as  the  probable  site 
of  the  temple  library)  was  not  examined  by  the  explorer 
during  the  three  years  which  he  passed  almost  without 
interruption  at  Nuffar. 

It  was  stated  above  (p.  360)  that  in  the  summer  of  1895 
Haynes  spent  the  morning  hours  of  two  weeks  at  the  long, 
narrow  ridge  (II-III)  to  the  north  of  the  temple,  in  order 
to  ascertain  the  foundations  and  dimensions  of  the  ancient 
city  wall,  where  in  1894  he  and  Meyer  had  discovered 
stamped  crude    bricks    of   Naram-Sin    immediately    below 


32 


DURING  lOTii   CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      425 

Ur-Gur's  material.  He  unearthed  great  numbers  of  terra- 
cotta cones,  sometimes  colored  red  or  black  at  their  round 
bases,  and  fragments  of  water  spouts  "  in  the  debris  that 
had  gathered  at  the  bottom  of  the  wall."  The  former 
were  either  small  and  solid  or  large  and  hollow,  and  evi- 
dently had  been  used  for  decorating^  its  parapet;  the 
latter  had  served  for  draining  the  upper  surface  of  the 
structure.  As  Haynes  accidentally  had  laid  his  trench  di- 
agonally through  a  bastion  of  the  wall,'^  as  was  determined 
by  the  architects  of  the  fourth  expedition,  his  measure- 
ments obtained  at  that  time  ^  proved  by  far  too  great, 
and  consequently  may  be  disregarded  at  present,  while  his 
theory  connected  with  the  occupation  of"  the  spacious  and 
airy  summit  "  of  the  wall  by  rooms  for  the  pilgrims  is 
based  upon  the  plan  of  modern  khans  or  caravansaries  rather 
than  upon  a  correct  conception  of  an  early  Babylonian  tem- 
ple, and  therefore  has  no  real  merit.  We  close  this  sketch 
of  his  work  at  the  city  wall  by  mentioning  that  he  reports  to 
have  discovered  "  a  bubbling  spring  "  —  he  probably  means 
an  open  well  —  on  the  northeastern  side  of  the  great  open 
court  confined  by  this  rampart,  and  "  the  brick  platforms 
and  curbs  where  the  water-pots  rested  "  on  either  side  of  the 
"  spring."  The  bricks  were  those  in  use  at  the  time  of 
Naram-Sin  and  his  immediate  successors. 

Fourth  Campaign^  i8g8—igoo.  The  first  three  American 
expeditions  to  Nuffar  had  been  sent  out  by  the  trustees  of 
the  Babylonian  Exploration  Fund  of  Philadelphia  in  affilia- 
tion with  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  ;  the  fourth  stood 
under  the  direct  control  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
A  large  new  museum  building  had  been  erected  principally 

^   Comp.  p.   148,  above. 

'^  Comp.  the  zinctype  of  a  section  of  this  wall  below  (Fourth  Campaign, 
Temple  Mound,  Section  6). 

2  As  reproduced  in  Hilprecht,  "  The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.," 
series  A,  vol.  i,  part  2,  pp.  20,  seq. 


426  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

by  private  subscriptions/  and  a  reorganization  of  the  Archaeo- 
logical Department  of  the  University  had  taken  place  under 
Provost  Harrison.  The  late  Dr.  Pepper,  who  had  worked 
so  energetically  for  the  development  of  archaeological  inter- 
ests in  his  city,  became  its  first  president.  The  property  of 
the  Exploration  Fund  was  transferred  to  the  university,  and 
the  expedition  committee  hencetorth  discharged  its  duties  in 
immediate  connection  with  and  as  one  of  the  most  effective 
bodies  of  the  new  department.  The  beginning  of  actual 
American  excavations  in  Babvlonia  will  forever  remain  con- 
nected inseparably  with  the  name  of  E.  W.  Clark,  of  Phila- 
delphia, who  was  faithfully  assisted  by  Mr.  W.  W.  Frazier. 
It  was  at  the  initiative  of  the  former's  brother,  Mr.  C. 
H.  Clark,  the  well-deserving  chairman  of  the  Babylonian 
Publication  Committee,  that  the  fourth  expedition  was  called 
into  existence.  A  small  but  distinguished  group  of  gener- 
ous Philadelphia  citizens,  whose  names  have  become  reg- 
ular household  words  in  the  archaeological  circles  of  the 
United  States,  was  ready  again  to  support  the  scientific 
undertaking.  In  Mav,  1898,  the  present  writer  left  New 
York,  in  order  to  secure  the  necessary  firman  for  the  new 
expedition.  As  His  Majesty  the  Sultan  continued  his  gra- 
cious attitude  towards  the  University's  representative,  and  as 
the  Ottoman  government  and  the  directors  of  the  Imperial 
Museum  facilitated  his  work  in  every  way,  the  important 
document  was  granted  so  speedilv  that  a  fortnight  after  his 
arrival  in  Constantinople  he  was  enabled  to  cable  the  wel- 
come news  to  Philadelphia  and  to  advise  the  formal  appoint- 
ment of  the  new  expedition  staff,  the  details  of  which  had 
been  arranged  previously.  Soon  afterwards  Dr.  Pepper  died 
suddenly  in  California,  from  heart-failure.  His  loss  was 
seriouslv   felt;    but    Mr.  E.  W.  Clark,  as  chairman   of  the 

^  The  fine  large  pavilion  erected  for  an  exhibit  of  antiquities  obtained  chiefly 
from  the  temple  of  Bel  was  the  magnificent  gift  of  Mr.  Daniel  Baugh,  of 
Philadelphia,  whose  name  it  very  appropriately  bears. 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      427 

Expedition  Committee,  assisted  by  Mr.  John  Sparhawk,  Jr., 
as  treasurer,  carried  on  the  great  work  with  unabated  energy. 
The  Babylonian  Committee  of  the  Department  of  Archae- 
ology, considering  the  serious  disadvantages  which  had  ac- 
crued to  science  from  the  unsatisfactory  equipment  and  the 
one-sided  methods  of  exploration  pursued  by  the  second  and 
third  expeditions  at  Nuffar,  was  determined  to  profit  from 
its  past  experience,  and  to  relieve  Haynes,  who  had  offered 
his  services  again  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  of  that 
extraordinary  nervous  stress  under  which  he  had  been  labor- 
ing most  of  the  time  during  the  previous  years.  It  was 
decided  to  imitate  the  example  set  by  the  British  Museum 
at  the  first  period  of  Assyrian  exploration,  when  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  work  in  the  field  was  divided  successfully 
between  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  as  scientific  director  of  all 
the  English  excavations  carried  on  in  Assyria,  Babylonia, 
and  Susiana,  and  Hormuzd  Rassam,  as  chief  practical  exca- 
vator (comp.  pp.  i2S,seq.).  The  present  writer  accordingly 
was  appointed  Scientific  Director,  and  Haynes,  as  Field 
Director,  was  entrusted  with  the  practical  management  of  the 
work  at  the  ruins.  H.  Valentine  Geere,  of  Southampton, 
England,  one  of  the  two  gentlemen  who  had  been  sent  in 
1895  ^°  ^^^  assistance  of  Haynes  (comp.  pp.  360,  Jt-^.),  and 
Clarence  S.  Fisher  of  the  Department  of  Architecture  at  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania — the  latter  going  without  a  sal- 
ary —  were  chosen  as  the  two  architects  of  the  new  expedi- 
tion. At  Haynes'  special  request  his  wife  was  allowed  to  ac- 
company the  party  as  a  guest  of  the  committee,  which  most 
generously  defrayed  all  her  travelling  and  living  expenses. 
It  should  be  stated  at  the  very  outset  that  the  remarkable 
comfort  which  the  members  of  the  fourth  expedition  enjoyed, 
in  comparison  with  the  numerous  deprivations  experienced 
bv  the  previous  ones,  was  in  no  small  measure  due  to  Mrs. 
Haynes'  active  interest  in  their  personal  welfare.  She  not 
only  assisted    her   husband  as   his  private  secretary   in  his 


428  EXPLORATIONS  IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

manifold  duties,  but  she  took  complete  charge  of  the  house- 
hold of  the  expedition  in  such  an  admirable  manner  that 
the  members  of  our  camp  at  Nuffar  breathed  a  true  home- 
like atmosphere  thoroughly  appreciated  by  our  several  visi- 
tors from  Susa,  Babylon,  Baghdad,  and  Basra.  This  changed 
condition  appeared  so  strange  to  the  present  writer,  who 
had  retained  such  a  vivid  recollection  of  the  primitive  style 
in  which  we  lived  in  1889,  that,  though  our  windows  con- 
sisted only  of  spoiled  photographic  negatives,  he  at  times 
could  almost  imagine  himself  transplanted  to  one  of  the 
watering-places  of  the  Arab  caliphs  in  the  desert/ 

On  September  22,  1898,  the  formal  contract  was  executed 
with  Haynes,  and  the  resumption  of  the  excavations  at  Nuf- 
far authorized  for  a  period  of  two  years,  including  the  time 
consumed  by  travel,  at  an  expense  of  $30,000,  the  work  in 
the  field  to  be  carried  on  with  an  average  force  of  180  Arab 
laborers.  Two  days  later  Haynes  left  New  York  for  Eng- 
land, where  he  was  to  meet  his  architects  and  to  complete 
the  necessary  outfit,  to  which  a  number  of  prominent  Amer- 
ican firms  most  liberally  had  contributed  general  supplies, 
foods,  and  medicine."  Soon  afterwards  a  final  meeting 
was  held  by  the  present  writer  with  the  members  of  the 
expedition  at  the  harbor  of  Southampton,  in  which  the  plans 
of  operation    and   other  details  were  discussed  once   more, 

1  Comp.  Alois  Musi],  ^iseir  'Amra  una  a?idere  Schlosser  bstlich  von 
Moab,  part  i,  in  Sitzungsberichte  der  Wiener  Akademie  der  Wissemchaften, 
phil.-hht.  CL,  cxliv,  vol.  7,  pp.   1-5 1  (1902). 

'^  In  behalf  of  the  committee  and  the  members  of  the  expedition,  I  take  this 
opportunity  to  express  the  University's  warm  appreciation  of  the  public  spirit 
displayed  by  the  representatives  of  these  firms  in  the  interest  of  science,  and 
append  their  names  in  alphabetical  order  :  The  Adams  &  Westlake  Co., 
Chicago,  III.;  Z.  &  W.  M.  Crane,  Dalton,  Mass.;  Erie  Preserving  Co., 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.;  Genesee  Pure  Food  Co.,  Leroy,  N.  Y. ;  H.  J.  Heinz  & 
Co.,  Pittsburg,  Pa.;  C.  I.  Hood,  Lowell,  Mass.;  Horlick  Food  Co.,  Ra- 
cine, Wis. ;  Libby,  McNeill  &  Libby,  Chicago,  111. ;  Richardson  &  Rob- 
bins,  Dover,  Del.;  Rumford  Chemical  Works,  Providence,  R.  I.;  Edward 
G.  Stevens,  New  York  ;  Trommer  Extract  of  Malt  Co.,  Fremont,  Ohio. 


DURING  IQTH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      429 

whereupon  the  former  returned  to  Philadelphia  in  the  hope 
of  joining  the  party  at  Nuffar  in  the  course  of  the  following 
year,  as  soon  as  the  organization  of  the  University  Mu- 
seum should  have  been  completed.  Mr.  Haynes,  with  his 
wife  and  the  two  architects,  proceeded  to  Marseilles,  whence 
they  sailed  to  Baghdad  by  way  of  Port  Said,  Aden,  and 
Basra,  arriving  in  the  city  of  Harun  ar-Raschid  on  Decem- 
ber I  8  in  the  same  year. 

The  sub-committee  created  in  1895  (comp.  pp.  358,  seq.), 
and  consisting  of  Messrs.  E.  W.  Clark,  John  Sparhawk,  Jr., 
and  the  Scientific  Director,  acted  again  as  an  advisory  board 
to  those  in  the  field.  The  plan  which  I  had  outlined  as  a  basis 
for  the  work  of  the  fourth  campaign  was,  if  possible,  to  deter- 
mine the  following  points  :  i.  The  precise  character  of  the 
temple  of  Bel  at  the  principal  periods  of  its  long  history, 
and  especially  before  the  time  of  King  Ur-Gur  (about  2700 
B.  c),  whom  Haynes  regarded  as  the  probable  monarch  who 
at  Nippur  had  introduced  the  stage-tow^r,  the  most  impor- 
tant part  of  all  the  large  Babylonian  temples.^  2.  The  gen- 
eral dimensions  of  pre-Sargonic  Nippur  ;  that  is,  to  ascertain 
whether  outside  of  the  temple  of  Bel  and  the  ashes  and 
potsherds,  etc.,  previously  disclosed  by  Haynes'  tunnels 
and  shafts  in  the  ridge  to  the  west  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil,  trails 
could  be  found  which  would  allow  us  to  draw  more  positive 
conclusions  with  regard  to  the  size  and  nature  of  the  earliest 
settlements.  3.  The  length  and  the  course  of  the  city  walls, 
so  far  as  they  were  not  discernible  above  ground,  and  the 
location  of  one  or  more  of  the  three  or  four  large  city  gates 
of  Nippur,  so  frequently  mentioned  in  the  later  Babylonian 
inscriptions  which  had  been  unearthed  by  the  first  three 
expeditions.  4.  The  exact  position,  extent,  and  character 
of  the  temple  library,  which,  since  my  first  ride  over  the 
mounds  of  Nufl^ar,  I  had  consistently  declared  was  buried  in 

Comp.  Hilprecht,  ''The    Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol. 
i,  part  2,  p.   17. 


430  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

the  most  southern  group  of  mounds' on  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Shatt  en-Nil  (IV).  5.  The  distinguishing  features  in 
the  modes  of  burials  practised  at  ancient  Nippur,  and  the 
various  types  and  forms  of  pottery  once  used,  by  means  of 
well-defined  strata,  dated  documents,  and  accurate  labels, 
in  order  to  obtain  satisfactory  rules  for  dating  the  numer- 
ous vases  which,  so  far,  we  had  been  unable  to  assign  to  any 
period  of  Babylonian  history  with  a  reasonable  degree  of 
certainty.  6.  To  these  important  problems,  at  Mr.  E.  W. 
Clark's  special  request,  was  added  the  task  of  excavating 
completely  the  large  building  with  its  colonnade  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil  (VII),  which  had  been  dis- 
covered and  partly  explored  by  the  first  expedition  (comp. 
pp.  308,  313),  and  which  received  some  attention  also 
during  the  second  campaign  by  Dr.  Peters  (comp.  pp.  337, 
seqq.),  who  assigned  it  to  the  Cassite  period  (about  1300 
B.  c),  while  the  present  writer  had  declared  it  to  be  Parthian 
(about  250  B.  c). 

In  order  not  to  influence  Haynes  unduly  in  his  own  judg- 
ment, and  to  secure  for  him  a  necessary  amount  of  liberty 
of  action  in  the  field  within  the  bounds  of  a  clearly  defined 
course,  it  was  decided  not  to  communicate  to  him  the  reasons 
for  our  plans  nor  the  hopes  we  expected  to  realize  by  their 
proper  execution.  Accordingly  we  confined  ourselves  to 
positive  instructions  with  regard  to  the  use  of  photography, 
the  manner  in  which  his  note-books  were  to  be  kept,  the  pre- 
serving and  packing  of  the  antiquities  desired  for  transport, 
and  impressed  upon  him  the  following  rules  as  a  basis  tor 
his  operations:  i.  To  devote  only  one  third  to  one  fourth 
of  his  force  to  the  methodical  exploration  of  the  temple 
mound  ;  to  select  the  east  section  of  the  court  of  the  zig- 
gurrat  and  the  enclosing  wall  of  the  latter  as  the  object 
of  his  mission  ;  and  to  pay  greater  attention  to  the  peculiari- 
ties of  the  different  layers  than  had  been  the  case  in  the 
past.   2.  While  recommending  "  the  whole  of  the  mounds  " 


DURING  19T11  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      431 

to  his  care,  to  concentrate  his  efforts  principally  upon 
two  of  the  other  mounds,  namely,  the  so-called  "  Tab- 
let Hill  "  (IV,  the  probable  site  of  the  temple  library), 
which  he  had  not  touched  at  all  during  the  third  cam- 
paign, and  which,  above  all,  needed  a  methodical  explora- 
tion ;  and  the  mound  represented  by  the  so-called  "  Court 
of  Columns"  (VII)  at  the  north  end  of  the  ridge  to  the 
west  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil.  3.  To  make  the  settling  of  the 
numerous  topographical  questions  one  of  the  most  essen- 
tial tasks  of  this  expedition,  and  to  regard  the  location  of 
one  or  more  of  the  ancient  city  gates,  particularly  of  the 
eastern  and  southern  gates,  in  all  probability  represented 
by  the  ahullu  rabu  ("  the  large  gate  "),  and  the  abullu  Shibi 


The  Daghara  Canal  and  a  Freight-Boat  {Meshhuf)  of  the  Expedition 


Uruku  of  the  inscriptions,  as  "  one  of  the  necessary  points 
to  be  determined  during  this  campaign."  The  critical  ex- 
amination   of  the   exposed   structures   and   antiquities,  the 


432  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

determination  of  their  age,  character,  or  contents,  and  their 
topographical  and  historical  bearing  upon  our  knowledge  of 
ancient  Nippur,  and  the  acquiring  of  all  such  other  details 
as  should  enable  us  to  carry  the  plan,  as  outlined  above,  to 
a  successful  issue,  had  naturally  to  constitute  the  Scientific 
Director's  principal  share  in  the  work  of  the  fourth  expedi- 
tion. 

How  far  did  the  proceedings  of  the  party  in  the  field  jus- 
tify the  committee's  hopes  and  expectations  ?  Towards  the 
end  of  January,  1899,  the  expedition  left  Baghdad,  accom- 
panied by  a  caravan  of  sixty-two  camels  and  several  mules, 
which  carried  its  equipment  and  stores  to  Hilla.  Here 
they  were  transferred  to  six  large  native  sailing-boats,  used 
also  for  conveying  the  staff  and  the  Ottoman  commissioner, 
half-a-dozen  servants,  about  1 50  of  our  former  workmen 
from  the  vicinitv  of  Babylon  with  their  families  and  sup- 
plies, and  six  zabtiye  furnished  by  the  government  as  a 
guard,  down  the  Euphrates,  through  the  Daghara  canal 
and  the  Khor  el-'Afej  to  Nuffar.  Unfortunately  by  that 
time  the  active  staff  had  been  reduced  temporarily  to 
Haynes  alone.  A  few  weeks  after  the  expedition's  arrival 
at  Baghdad,  Geere  fell  violently  ill  with  pneumonia  and 
dysenterv,  which  gradually  developed  into  typhoid  fever  and 
excluded  him  for  a  long  while  from  the  field.  And  scarcely 
had  he  recovered  sufficiently  from  the  two  maladies  when  he 
was  attacked  by  six  date-boils  at  the  same  time.  Truly  this 
beginning  was  anything  but  encouraging;  and  to  make  mat- 
ters worse,  the  English  physician  was  then  absent  from  the 
city,  and  an  "  intelligent  English-speaking  trained  nurse  " 
could  not  be  had,  so  that  Fisher's  very  natural  proposal,  to 
remain  with  his  sick  comrade  until  together  they  could  join 
the  party  in  the  field,  was  accepted  by  Haynes. 

On  February  4,  the  six  boats  reached  Nuffar.  Welcomed 
by  a  special  messenger  from  Hajji  Tarfa  and  by  a  large 
crowd  of  the  Hamza,  who  did  not  conceal  their  pleasure  at 


DURING   lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND   BABYLONIA      433 

seeing  the  expedition  again  among  them,  well  knowing  that 
the  presence  of  the  foreigners  "  meant  to  them  a  season 
of  prosperity,"  the  party  established  itself  at  once  in  its  old 
quarters.  The  seals  attached  to  the  meftul  were  found  un- 
broken, and  the  three  Arab  guards,  to  whom  the  property 


Headquarters  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania's  Fourth  Expedition  at  Nuffar 
Meftul  surrounded  />y  gardens  and  reed-huts  at  the  south  foot  of  the  ruins.       The  ^Afej  sivamps 

in  the  background. 


had  been  entrusted,  had  remained  "  faithful  to  their  charge 
under  very  great  discouragement,"  waiting  year  after  year 
patiently  for  Haynes'  return  and  for  the  expected  reward  of 
their  doubtless  conspicuous  services.  They  had  lived  near 
the  house,  and  also  watered  the  garden  regularly,  so  that 
many  date  trees  had  sprung  up  spontaneously  from  the 
stones  which  our  former  workmen  had  thrown  away 
thoughtlessly.  The  little  plants,  scarcely  visible  when 
Havnes  departed  from  the  ruins  in  1896,  had  become 
waving  palm  trees.  Some  of  them  even  bore  fruit  after 
a  growth  of  onlv  three  and  four  years,^   thus  vividly  illus- 

^   The  ordinary  time  required  for  a  date-palm  to  bear  fruit  is  five  years  at 
Basra,  and  eight  years  in  the  less  tropical  gardens  of  Baghdad,  according  to 


434  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

trating  the  proverbial  fertility  of  ancient  Babylonia,  and 
through  their  flourishing  state  demonstrating  more  forcibly 
than  many  arguments  could  do,  what  might  be  made  again 
of  the  treeless  desert  and  pasture  grounds  of  modern  'Iraq 
through  well-directed  human  labor  and  proper  irrigation. 

The  first  task  for  Haynes  was  to   put  the  wells  in  order, 
as  the  procuring  of  suitable  drinking-water  had  gradually  be- 
come a  vital  question  for  the  expedition.      During  the  first 
and  second  campaigns,  which  lasted  only  a  ftw  months,  we 
had  troubled  ourselves  very   little  about  the  quality  of  the 
water.     We  drank  it  as  the  Arab  women  brought  it  from 
the  marshes,  without  boiling  it  and  with  an  occasional  joke 
as  to  the  animal  life  which  we  observed  in  our  jars  and  cups. 
But  in  1893,  when  Haynes  went  to  Nuffar  with  the  under- 
standing that  he  was  to  remain   there  through  summer  and 
winter  for  several  years,  he  had  to  take  greater  care  of  his 
health  and  to  face  the   problem,  how  to  obtain  the  neces- 
sary supply  of  water  during  the  hottest  months  of  the  year, 
w'hen  the  marshes  usually  recede  from   the  ruins.     At  first 
he  had  adopted  the  Arab  method,  and  conducted  the  water 
to  his  "  castle  "  by  digging  a  small    but   sufficiently    deep 
canal  to  one   of  the  principal  streams  in  the  midst   of  the 
K/ior.      But  after   the   neighboring   tribes,  for    the  sake  of 
gain,  repeatedlv  had   closed  his  canal,   he  decided  in  1894 
to  make  his  camp  independent  of  the  interferences  of  the 
Arabs  by  digging  wells   around    his   house.      This    experi- 
ment   led    to  a  very   unique   result.      The    water    obtained 
from  three  of  them,  dug  at  a  distance  of  only  forty  to  forty- 
five  feet  from  each  other,  was  as  different  as  it  possibly  could 
be.     That  of  the  first  well  was  "  very  bitter,"  that  of  the 
second  "  absolutely  undrinkable  for  men  and  animals,"  that 
of  the  third,  W'hich  subsequently  was  lined  with  bricks  and 
provided  with   a  pump,  was  "  drinkable,  slightly  impreg- 
the  information  whicli    I   received   directly  from   the   Arab  gardeners  at  both 
places. 


DURING  lOTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      435 

nated  with  various  salts,  and  yet  scarcely  rendered  unpalata- 
ble thereby."  In  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  campaign  a 
still  purer  and,  in  fact,  most  excellent  water,  was  procured 
from  a  new  fourth  well,  which  afterwards  was  vaulted  over 
entirely  to  prevent  its  pollution  by  the  Arabs,  while  the 
precious  liquid  was  conducted  by  subterranean  pipes  into 
the  court  of  the  meftul,  so  that  in  case  of  a  siege  we  should 
never  suffer  from  lack  of  water. 

For  almost  three  years  the  building  of  the  expedition  had 
remained  unoccupied  and  had  been  exposed  to  the  heavy 
rains  of  the  winter  and  the  equally  damaging  effect  of  the 
hot  rays  of  the  sun.  But  though  consisting  only  of  clay 
laid  up  en  masse,  it  was  found  in  better  condition  than  could 
reasonably  have  been  anticipated.  As  the  fast  days  of  Ra- 
madhan  were  drawing  to  their  close,  Haynes,  in  true  Arab 
stvle,  had  it  announced  by  heralds  in  the  camps  and  villages 
of  the  'Afej  that  no  native  workman  would  be  engaged  be- 
fore the  approaching  festival  of  Bairam  was  over.  At  the 
same  time  he  divided  his  large  body  of  Hilla  men  into 
three  groups,  ordering  the  one  section  to  prepare  the  tools 
for  work  in  the  trenches  and  to  re-open  the  excavations  ; 
the  second  to  dig  roots  and  gather  thorn  bushes  as  fuel 
for  the  kitchen  ;  the  third  to  build  reed  huts  for  the 
families  of  the  laborers  and  to  repair  the  "castle."  In 
consequence  of  the  increased  staff  of  the  expedition,  the 
meftul  proved  by  far  too  small.  Arrangements  had,  there- 
fore, to  be  made  at  once  to  accommodate  the  larger  party  by 
adding  another  story  to  the  old  structure.  As  a  number  of 
Arabs,  well  versed  in  the  art  of  primitive  house-building, 
were  at  Havnes'  disposal,  the  difficulty  was  soon  removed, 
and  all  his  time  could  be  devoted  to  the  principal  task  of 
the  expedition. 

"A  word  remains  to  be  said  about  the  attitude  of  the 
*Afej,  Hamza,  Sa'id  and  other  neighboring  tribes.  With- 
out exception,  they  remained  friendly  towards  us  during  the 


436 


EXPLORATIONS   IX  JifBLE  LAXDS 


whole  campaign.  Hajji  Tarfa  proved  the  same  staunch 
supporter  of  our  plans  as  he  always  had  been.  Though  less 
elastic  in  his  movements  than  when  we  met  him  the  first 
time,  and  slightly  bent  bv  the  burden  of  years,  the  "  Moltke 
of  the  'Afej,"  as  he  was  styled  very  appropriately  by  the 
wa]i  of  Baghdad,  had  understood  how  to  retain  and  even  to 
increase  his  influence  among  his  shiftless  but  retractory  sub- 
jects, and  hold  the  vounger  shaikhs  in  discipline,  who  often 
were  eager  to  win  their  own  laurels  and  to  strengthen  their 
position  at  the  expense  of  the  venerable  patriarch.  The 
Turkish  government,  realizing  how  valuable  his  services 
were  in  controlling  the  most  troublesome  province  of  the 
whole  vilayet,  was  ready  to  assist  him  in  his  efforts  to  keep 
peace,  and  repeatedly  gave  him  visible  proofs  of  the  high 
esteem  in  which  he  was   held  throughout  the  country.      At 


•i 

'  ^'^^fl 

^nksT  ^ 

^,^ 

^'t^HH 

^^^^^^^^? 

,^:>»*^;:-!M5i-^ 

I^^Hhkjh 

Jj^M 

P^Lg 

/- 

mn 

I%ii9i 

■Iffsjjl 

^j^i|p9 

i: ;' 

M^. 

L^ 

1    ^ 

-  "rC^S-r-^ 

Hajji  Tarfa's  Garden  and  Reception  Room  { Aiudhif) 


his  earliest  opportunity  Haynes   hurried  over  to  the  great 
chieftain's  meftiil,  about  six  miles  distant,  to  pay   him  an 


DURING   10 III  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BAIiYLONIA      437 

official  visit.  In  the  presence  of  his  warriors  he  put  around 
his  neck  a  long  chain  of  gold  (tor  the  watch  previously 
given  to  him),  and  threw  over  his  shoulder  a  fine  cloak 
{^a^a)y  woven  with  silver  thread,  presents  from  the  com- 
mittee, to  which,  a  year  later,  the  present  writer  added  a 
Whitman  saddle,  for  which  Hajji  Tarfa  had  expressed  a 
genuine  admiration. 

The  care  for  the  safety  of  the  expedition  through  proper 
guards  was  entrusted  by  the  shaikh  of  all  the  'Afej  to  the 
same  two  Hamza  leaders  who  in  former  years  had  been  re- 
sponsible to  him.  They  kept  their  pledges  honorably  to 
the  end  of  the  campaign.  All  the  tribes  inhabiting  the 
borders  of  the  marshes  intermingled  freely  with  our  men  and 
looked  upon  us  with  a  certain  feeling  of  pride,  almost  as 
upon  members  of  their  own  clans,  who  from  time  to  time 
appeared  on  their  territory,  for  a  while  sharing  their  pasture 
grounds  and  leaving  behind  them  untold  blessings  when 
they  departed.  A  great  change  had  taken  place  on  these 
barren  plains  since  I  had  seen  them  last.  It  was  the  natural 
result  of  the  transfer  of  the  capital  to  Diwaniye,  and  in  no 
small  measure  due  to  the  tactful  but  energetic  treatment  of 
the  'Afej  tribes  on  the  part  of  the  Ottoman  government.  A 
sacred  calm  lay  in  the  air, —  not  the  calm  preceding  a  disas- 
trous storm,  but  that  divine  calm  which  announces  a  new 
era  of  happiness  to  the  people.  Every  flower  and  reed, 
every  shepherd  and  bird  seemed  to  be  conscious  of  it  and 
to  realize  that  Isaiah's  and  Jeremiah's  curse  of  two  thousand 
years  was  about  to  lift  from  the  countrv.  The  dry  bones 
of  Babvlonia's  vast  graveyard  began  to  rise  and  to  be  clad 
again  with  sinews  and  flesh  under  Jehovah's  life-breathing 
spirit  that  blew  softly  through  the  land  of  Bel  (Ezek.  37). 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Babylonia  stands  at  the  dawn 
of  a  general  resurrection.  Unmistakable  signs  of  a  new 
and  more  peaceful  development  of  the  many  natural  re- 
sources of  Shumer  and  Akkad  are  visible  everywhere.     A 


438  EXPLORATIO^YS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

great  movement  and  expectation  has  taken  possession  of  the 
tribes  of  the  interior,  partly  brought  about  in  consequence 
of  the  acquisition  and  cultivation  of  large  tracts  of  land  along 
the  canals  for  the  Sultan,  and  partly  inspired  by  the  various 
scientific  missions  from  Europe  and  America.  Through 
their  continued  exploration  of  the  ruins  these  foreign  exca- 
vators have  introduced  new  ideas  into  the  country,  made  the 
people  acquainted  with  important  inventions,  and,  above 
all,  taught  them  the  value  of  time  and  work,  thus  preparing 
the  way  for  the  planned  German  railroad,  of  which  even  the 
'Afej  speak  with  great  anticipation,  and  which  surely  will 
play  the  chief  missionary  role  throughout  the  country. 

When,  after  a  long  absence,  I  stood  again  on  the  airy  top 
of  Bint  el-Amir,  as  far  as  my  eye  could  scan  the  horizon  I 
saw  nothing  but  immense  flocks  of  sheep  and  goats,  don- 
keys and  cows  and  buffaloes  pastured  by  cheerful  boys  and 
men,  Arab  villages  and  encampments  scattered  over  the 
plain,  and  small  green  patches  of  cultivated  ground  on  the 
edges  of  the  inundated  districts;  the  camel  herds  and  black 
tents  of  the  Sa'id  in  the  distance,  and  far  away  beyond  the 
Tigris  towards  the  east,  only  now  and  then  visible,  the  snow- 
capped mountains  ^  of  Luristan.  At  my  first  meeting  with 
the  Hamza  shaikhs  and  their  retinues,  they  were  somewhat 
disappointed  because  they  did  not  recognize  me.  In  order 
to  establish  my  identity,  they  submitted  me  to  a  cross-exam- 
ination, inquiring  whether  I  remembered  the  burning  of 
our  camp.  But  scarcely  had  I  begun  to  recount  the  details 
of  the  disaster,  the  destruction  of  my  fine  horse,  Marduk, 
and  the  fortunate  escape  of  another,  y^i^u  khams  ("  father  of 
five,"  namely,  Turkish  liras),  as  I  had  named  it,  with  due 
regard  to  its  low  price  —  a  joke  thoroughly  appreciated  by 
the  Arabs,  —  and  to  refer  to  the  principal  persons  connected 
with   the  catastrophe,  asking  on   my  part  for  the  ill-fated 

^  The  Assyrian  word  for  "east"  is  shadii,  "mountain,"  as  the  He- 
brew one  for  "  west  "  h  yam,  "  ocean." 


33 


DURING  lOi'ii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      439 

Mukota's  little  son  and  Berdi's  tall  brother,  who  restored 
mv  saddle-bags,  when  their  eyes  sparkled  with  excitement. 
They  exclaimed,  "  ^<^//^/2  [by  God],  he  h  Abii  dhaq{a)n 
[father  (/'.  ^.,  owner)  of  a  beard],"  the  name  by  which  I 
used  to  be  known  among  them  ;  and  drawing  closer  upon 
me,  they  lighted  their  cigarettes,  drank  their  coffee,  re- 
hearsed old  jokes,  chatted  like  children,  and  asked  hun- 
dreds of  questions  about  Harper  and  Field,  the  new  rail- 
road, the  speed  of  its  trains,  their  prospect  of  exporting 
sheep  and  butter  and  rice,  etc.  "  Oh,  Abu  dhaq{a)n^  how 
times  have  changed.  Once  we  wanted  to  rob  you,  and  now 
you  are  our  brother,  whom  may  Allah  bless."  Of  course 
the  petty  quarrels  did  not  cease  altogether  among  the  various 
tribes  ;  and  murderers  and  other  desperadoes  took  refuge  in 
the  Khor  el-'Afej  then,  as  they  did  before,  but  they  never 
molested  us.  The  most  exciting  scene  that  occurred  while  we 
were  at  Nuffar,  was  the  settling  of  a  very  old  case  of  blood- 
feud,  under  the  very  walls  of  our  meftiil^  and  the  cowardly 
and  atrocious  manner  in  which,  on  this  occasion,  the  life  of 
a  perfectly  innocent  Arab  was  taken. 

Excavations  were  commenced  at  the  extreme  southeastern 
end  of  the  west  ridge  (VI)  on  February  6,  1899,  with  all 
the  available  workmen  from  Hilla.  In  order  to  strike  any 
possible  remains  of  the  ancient  city  wall,  if  ever  it  should 
have  existed  in  this  section  of  Nippur,  Haynes  opened  a 
trench  at  a  little  distance  from  the  ruins  and  descended 
gradually  below  the  level  of  the  plain  in  the  direction  of  the 
mounds.  But,  strange  to  say,  still  convinced  that  his  chief 
task  consisted  in  a  "  successful  tablet-hunting  "  rather  than 
in  a  strictly  scientific  exploration  of  Nuffar,  as  had  been  im- 
pressed so  emphatically  upon  him,  he  also  set  to  work  at 
once  to  clean  a  large  old  trench  abandoned  three  years 
before,  and  endeavored  "  to  push  the  excavations  forward 
into  the  mounds  towards  the  points  where  great  quantities 
of  tablets  had  been  found  "  previously. 


440  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Three  days  after  the  resumption  of  the  work  he  came 
upon  "  a  wall  of  burned  bricks  crossing  the  line  of  the  [first 
mentioned]  trench  transversely,  but  lying  at  a  lower  level." 
Our  expectations  were  raised  exceedingly  when  this  report 
reached  Philadelphia.  But  three  weeks  later,  long  before 
the  first  weekly  letter  was  in  our  hands,  Haynes  abandoned 
it  on  his  own  responsibility,  having  followed  its  course  for 
489  feet  "without  finding  either  end  of  it  "  or  discovering 
"  any  trace  of  door  or  window  "  in  it.  We  were  disap- 
pointed. Spring  and  summer  were  spent  in  a  well-meant, 
nervous  search  for  tablets  and  other  portable  antiquities 
by  carrying  a  trench  155  feet  wide  with  an  extreme  depth 
of  36  feet  a  distance  of  75  feet  into  the  mound,  and  by 
opening  smaller  trenches  and  tunnels  at  other  points  in 
the  same  general  locality.  In  this  manner  about  five  thou- 
sand cuneiform  tablets,  mostly  fragmentary  contracts  and 
lists  of  the  third  pre-Christian  millennium,  about  thirty  seal 
cylinders,  as  a  rule  much  worn  off  or  otherwise  damaged, 
about  a  dozen  interesting  clay  reliefs,  and  a  few  other  anti- 
quities were  gathered  from  the  lower  levels  of  the  ridge  in 
the  course  of  the  first  six  months.  An  arch  of  baked  bricks 
and  the  fragment  of  a  watercourse  similar  to  those  discov- 
ered in  the  lower  section  of  the  temple  mound  were  also 
briefly  referred  to.  The  upper  strata  and  the  slopes  of 
the  mounds  yielded  about  450  late  cofiins  of  various  types 
with  their  usual  contents,  a  number  of  bronze  bowls,  sev- 
eral thin  blue  glass  bottles  of  the  post-Christian  period,  a 
jar  containing  miscellaneous  coins,  articles  of  jewelry  and 
junk,  —  the  store  of  a  Parthian  jeweller! — about  thirty 
Hebrew  and  M andean  bowls,  among  them  two  containing 
an  inscribed  skull  in  pieces,  besides  other  minor  antiquities. 

The  reports  became  more  meagre  every  day,  furnishing 
practicallv  no  information  about  the  excavations  beyond  a 
simple  statement  as  to  how  many  tablets,  seal  cylinders  and 
other  more  striking  objects  had  been  discovered  during  the 


DURING  19''"  CENTURY :   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      441 

week,  and  how  many  coffins  had  been  opened.  Neither 
photograph  nor  sketch  accompanied  the  letters.  Havnes 
doubtless  worked  very  seriously  with  his  208  Arabs.  But 
notwithstanding  his  honest  efforts,  it  was  naturally  impos- 
sible for  him  to  control  such  a  large  body  of  men.  The 
results  would  have  been  more  satisfactory  to  himself  and  to 
the  committee,  if  he  had  retained  only  fifty  workmen  in  the 
trenches  as  long  as  he  was  alone,  and  devoted  a  part  of  his 
time  to  a  technical  description  of  his  excavations,  to  photo- 
graphing and  other  necessary  details  upon  which  the  success 
of  an  expedition  largely  depends.  As  matters  stood,  it 
became  next  to  impossible  for  the  committee  to  form 
any  adequate  idea  as  to  what  actually  was  going  on  at 
Nuffar.  Besides,  letters  required  five  to  seven  weeks  be- 
fore they  reached  Philadelphia,  Something  had  to  be 
done  quickly,  if  the  plans  we  had  formulated  were  ever 
to  be  realized.  To  complicate  matters  even  more,  misun- 
derstandings arose  between  the  two  architects  at  Baghdad 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  managing  director  in  the  field 
on  the  other.  This  led  to  Fisher's  resignation  in  April  and 
his  immediate  return  to  England,  and  for  a  second  time 
threatened  to  bring  about  Geere's  separation  from  the 
work  of  the  Philadelphia  expedition.^  At  the  beginning  of 
June  we  v/ere  in  the  possession  of  all  the  facts  necessary  to 
meet,  to  act,  and  to  decide  as  to  the  future  course  of  the 
expedition.  The  results  of  this  important  meeting  became 
soon  apparent.  Fisher  returned  to  Baghdad  in  the  early 
fall,  and  soon  afterwards,  together  with  Geere,  who  by  that 
time  had  fully  recovered  his  usual  health,  departed  for 
Nuffar,  arriving  there  on  October  20,  1899.  Upon  the 
unanimous  decision  of  the  committee  the  scientific  director 
was  to  follow  and  to  take  charge  of  the  excavations  at  the 
ruins  in  person  as  soon  as  the  organization  of  the  University 
Museum  should  have  been  completed.     Haynes  at  the  same 

^   Comp.  pp.  360,  sf^.,  above. 


442  EXFLOIiATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

time  received  more  positive  instructions  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  he  was  to  proceed  to  carry  the  work  of  the  expedition 
to  a  satisfactory  issue.  In  accordance  with  the  desires  of 
the  committee  he  henceforth  directed  his  attention  princi- 
pally to  the  exploration  of  the  eastern  half  of  the  court  of 
the  temple,  to  the  search  for  the  northeast  city  gate,  and 
to  the  excavation  of  the  probable  site  of  the  temple  library, 
the  so-called  "  Tablet  Hill  "  (IV),  so  that  his  Arabs  were 
not  scattered  over  too  large  a  surface,  and  with  the  subse- 
quent assistance  of  the  two  architects  could  be  controlled 
without  difficulty. 

Owing  to  Haynes'  praiseworthy  energy  and  characteristic 
devotion  to  his  duties,  he  soon  could  report  conspicuous  tan- 
gible results,  and  illustrate  them  by  his  own  photographs  and 
by  sketches  drawn  by  his  assistants.  He  evidently  worked 
hard  according  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  But  unfortunately 
our  positive  knowledge  as  to  the  topography  of  the  ruins 
was  advanced  but  little  thereby.  The  statements  were  too 
vague  to  enable  us  to  draw  .  ny  conclusions.  On  October 
28  he  wrote  with  regard  to  the  northeast  city  gate  :  "  Up  to 
the  present  moment,  we  have  found  no  certain  clue  beyond  a 
mere  fragment  of  very  archaic  wall,  to  indicate  the  existence 
at  that  point  of  a  gate  or  other  structure."  The  whole 
important  subject  was  never  mentioned  afterwards  except 
in  the  brief  title  of  a  photograph  despatched  three  months 
later,  which,  however, 'reached  Philadelphia  only  after  my 
arrival  at  Nuffar.  By  the  middle  of  December  tablets 
began  to  be  found  in  such  large  quantities  in  the  north- 
eastern part  of  the  "  Tablet  Hill,"  that  even  Haynes  was 
forced  to  admit  that  this  collection  of  tablets  looked  very 
much  as  if"  constituting  a  distinct  library  by  itself."  But 
whether  it  was  merely  another  of  these  collections  of  con- 
tract tablets  so  frequently  found  in  the  west  half  of  the 
ruins  and  always  styled  by  him  "  libraries,"  or  whether  it 
was   ihe    library  for  which   I    was  looking  so  eagerly,  the 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      443 

temple  library,  could  not  be  determined,  as  proper  descrip- 
tions were  lacking  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  reproduce 
a  few  lines  of  some  of  the  better-preserved  documents. 

It  was  very  evident  that,  above  all,  the  assistance  of  an 
experienced  archaeologist  and  Assyriologist  was  required  at 
NufFar  to  decipher  tablets,  to  determine  the  characteristic 
features  of  strata,  to  fix  the  approximate  age  of  walls  and 
other  antiquities,  to  ascertain  their  probable  purpose  and 
use,  to  lay  trenches  for  other  reasons  than  to  find  tablets, 
and  to  gather  all  the  loose  threads  together  and  to  endeavor 
to  reconstruct  some  kind  of  a  picture  of  the  ancient  city  on 
the  basis  of  his  examination  and  studies.  The  architects  did 
their  very  best  to  assist  Haynes  and  to  promote  the  cause 
of  the  expedition.  But  entirely  unfamiliar  with  Babylonian 
archaeology  as  they  then  were,  and  for  the  first  time  con- 
fronted with  the  complicated  problems  of  a  Babylonian  ruin, 
they  needed  technical  advice  as  to  how  to  overcome  the  dif- 
ficulties. Being  left  entirely  to  their  own  resources,  they 
decided  to  undertake  what  they  were  able  to  do  under  the 
circumstances.  They  sketched  drains,  tombs,  vases  and 
various  other  antiquities  to  illustrate  Haynes'  weekly  re- 
ports ;  they  tried  to  make  themselves  acquainted  with  the 
remains  of  the  ziggurrat  previously  drawn  by  Meyer,  and  to 
survey  and  plot  the  constructions  occupying  the  eastern  cor- 
ner of  the  temple  court  prior  to  their  removal.  But  they  also 
facilitated  my  later  work  on  the  ruins  in -one  essential  point. 
As  we  saw  above  (pp.  371,  seq^),  in  the  course  of  the  third 
campaign,  Haynes  had  discovered  the  remains  of  the  original 
approach  to  the  ziggurrat,  indicated  by  two  almost  parallel 
walls,  extending  nearly  at  a  right  angle  far  into  the  court 
from  the  southeastern  face  of  the  stage-tower.  It  had 
appeared,  therefore,  most  natural  to  the  present  writer  to 
assume  that  the  principal  gate  or  entrance  to  the  temple 
court  must  lie  in  the  enclosing  wall  somewhere  opposite 
that  approach.      In    1897,   when   I    first    had    occasion   to 


444  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

examine  all  of  Havnes'  negatives  thoroughly,  I  was  sur- 
prised to  find  that  he  had  exposed  a  number  of  stepped 
recesses  precisely  at  the  place  where  the  gate  should  have 
existed,  and  that  he  had  actually  discovered  the  entrance 
without  knowing  and  reporting  it,  as  unfortunately  he  had 
cut  one  half  of  the  gate  completely  away  by  one  of  his 
wretched  perpendicular  shafts  which  proved  so  disastrous  to 
the  temple  court.  The  architects  were  not  slow  in  recog- 
nizing the  importance  of  these  stepped  recesses,  and  asked 
at  once  for  permission  to  remove  the  large  round  tower  of 
the  latest  fortification,  lying  directly  on  the  top  of  them  — 
the  same  which  Peters  had  compared  with  the  pillar  of  Jachin 
or  Boaz  at  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  (comp.  p.  233y  above). 

Haynes  gave  it  reluctantlv,  as  he  thought  the  expense 
of  time  and  labor  involved  in  this  work  too  great  in  com- 
parison with  the  probable  results  expected  by  him,  and  left 
the  architects  in  complete  charge  of  this  excavation.  They 
solved  their  first  independent  task  very  satisfactorily,  un- 
covered the  remaining  part  of  the  gate,  found  a  door-socket 
in  situ,  and  disclosed  the  existence  of  an  important  tomb 
near  the  south  corner  of  the  latest  enclosing  wall,  on  which 
we  shall  have  to  say  a  few  words  later. 

By  the  middle  of  November,  1899,  the  scientific  director 
had  finished  the  organization  of  the  Semitic  section  of  the 
University  Museum,  so  that  he  could  leave  for  the  East  to 
join  the  other  members  of  the  expedition.  But  in  conse- 
quence of  considerable  delays  caused  to  the  boats  by  storms 
in  the  Atlantic,  by  the  discharge  of  a  heavy  cargo  at  the  So- 
mali coast,  by  quarantine  in  the  Shatt  el-'xA.rab  for  having 
touched  at  the  plague-,  cholera-,  and  small-pox-stricken  har- 
bor of  Maskat,  and  finally  by  the  sudden  rise  of  the  Tigris, 
he  did  not  reach  Nufiar  before  March  i,  1900.  Having 
gone  out  "as  the  representative  of  the  committee  and  with 
the  full  powers  of  the  committee,"  he  naturally  was  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  proper  execution  of  the  plans  as  outlined 


DURING   I'JTii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      445 

above.  After  a  careful  examination  of  all  the  trenches  and 
a  full  discussion  of  the  whole  situation  with  Haynes,  I 
found  it  necessary  to  change  entirely  the  methods  hitherto 
employed.  Accordingly  all  the  excavations  carried  on  for  the 
mere  purpose  of  finding  tablets  and  other  antiquities  were 
suspended,  especially  as  1  had  ascertained  through  a  study 
of  representative  tablets,  an  inspection  of  the  rooms  in  which 
they  had  been  discovered,  and  a  brief  continuation  of  the 
work  in  the  trenches,  that  the  "Tablet  Hill  "  actually  re- 
presented the  site  of  the  temple  library,  as  I  had  maintained 
for  so  many  years.  I  regarded  the  further  exploration  of 
this  library  as  by  far  less  important  than  the  solving  of  some 
of  the  many  other  complicated  topographical  problems  which 
in  the  past  had  received  so  little  attention,  before  the  ex- 
posed building  remains  should  have  crumbled  beyond  recog- 
nition. Originally  it  had  been  my  intention  also  to  excavate 
the  largely  untouched  southwest  section  of  the  temple 
court  methodically,  in  order  to  supplement  and  to  cor- 
rect the  one-sided  information  received  previously  and  to 
study  personally  layer  after  layer,  pavement  after  pavement, 
with  a  view  of  providing  new  material  for  settling  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  important  buildings  had  occupied  the 
temple  court  at  the  different  periods  of  its  history.  But 
when  1  found  that  enormous  dump-heaps  had  been  raised 
there  by  my  predecessors  I  had  to  give  up  this  plan,  as  the 
examination  could  not  begin  properly  before  the  latter  had 
been  removed  to  a  safe  distance — a  task  alone  requiring 
more  time  and  labor  than  was  at  my  disposal  for  the  various 
tasks  together. 

Considering  all  the  circumstances,  there  was  nothing  to 
be  done  but  to  accept  the  situation  as  it  presented  itself, 
and  to  make  the  best  of  it.  In  the  interest  of  science  I 
therefore  decided  to  leave  the  unexplored  sections  of  the 
court  of  the  ziggurrat  and  the  temple  library  to  a  subse- 
quent fifth  expedition,  as  both  doubtless  were  safer  when 


446  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

covered  with  earth  than  if  inadequately  examined  and  ex- 
posed to  the  fury  of  the  elements.  This  expedition  was 
sent  out  to  endeavor  to  understand  Nuffar  as  a  whole,  not 
to  remove  large  mounds  of  debris  merely  for  the  sake  of 
finding  portable  antiquities  and  tablets  by  the  bushel  and 
to  count  their  market  value  in  dollars  and  cents.  I  was 
personally  despatched  to  solve  scientific  problems  and  to 
interpret  the  ruins.  The  more  essential  topographical 
questions  once  having  been  settled,  it  would  be  a  compara- 
tivelv  easy  task  for  the  committee  to  have  the  single 
mounds  excavated  one  alter  another  bv  somebody  else,  if 
necessitv  arose,  who  was  less  familiar  with  the  ruins  and  the 
history  of  their  exploration  than  the  present  writer,  who  had 
been  connected  with  this  undertaking  from  its  very  begin- 
ning. Everv  trench  cut  henceforth  —  and  there  were  a 
great  manv  —  was  cut  for  the  sole  purpose  of  excavating 
structures  systematically  and  of  gathering  necessary  data  for 
the  historv  and  topography  of  ancient  Nippur.  If  these 
trenches  vielded  tangible  museum  results  at  the  same  time, 
so  much  the  better  ;  if  thev  did  not,  I  was  not  troubled  by 
their  absence  and  felt  just  as  well  satisfied  as  if  I  had  packed 
several  thousand  tablets,  or  perhaps  even  more  so.  But  in 
order  to  state  this  expresslv  here,  antiquities  were  found  so 
abundantlv  in  the  pursuit  of  the  plan  described,  that  the 
principle  was  established  anew  that  a  strictly  scientific 
method  of  excavating  is  at  the  same  time  the  most  profit- 
able. 

The  number  of  workmen  was  increased  and  maintained 
until  the  middle  of  April,  when  many  of  the  native  Arabs 
began  to  quit  the  trenches  to  harvest  their  barley  and  to 
look  after  their  agricultural  interests.  Haynes  retained  full 
charge  of  the  men  in  the  field  under  my  general  supervision. 
Fisher  and  Geere  were  instructed  to  make  a  complete  survey 
of  all  the  remaining  walls,  buildings,  drains,  pavements,  etc., 
excavated   by  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  expeditions,  and 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      447 

to  prepare  special  plans  of  all  those  structures  which  I  was 
able  to  assign  to  certain  periods  and  to  bring  into  closer 
relation  with  each  other.  As  far  as  it  served  to  facilitate 
their  task  and  to  introduce  them  into  the  archaeological 
work  proper,  both  were  placed  in  charge  of  their  own 
gangs  under  Haynes'  immediate  control,  while  I  reserved 
to  myself  the  right  of  advising  them  and  of  modifying  or 
changing  the  courses  of  all  the  trenches  whenever  new  de- 
velopments in  them  should  require  it.  The  entire  length 
of  the  northeast  city  wall  was  traced  and  studied,  and  a 
number  of  interesting  structures  and  antiquities  found  in 
connection  with  them.  All  the  explored  rooms  of  the 
temple  library  and  of  the  later  buildings  lying  over  them 
were  surveyed  and  drawn.  The  long  brick  wall  reported 
to  have  been  found  and  abandoned  by  Haynes  at  the  south- 
east edge  of  the  west  half  of  the  ruins  (p.  440,  above),  was 
explored  successfully  and  its  real  nature  and  purpose  deter- 
mined. In  accordance  with  Mr.  E.  W.  Clark's  request,  the 
so-called  "Court  of  Columns"  (VII  on  the  plan  of  the 
ruins)  received  very  considerable  attention.  After  its  com- 
plete excavation  I  could  only  confirm  my  view  formulated 
in  1889,  that  this  fine  little  palace  belongs  to  the  Hellenistic 
period,  in  other  words,  is  of  Parthian,  not  of  Cassite  origin.* 
The  upper  strata  covering  this  building  afforded  me  an  ex- 
cellent opportunity  to  examine  into  the  manner  in  which  the 
inscribed  incantation  bowls  had  been  used  by  the  Jewish 
inhabitants  of  Calneh  in  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries 
of  our  era.  For  the  present  it  may  suffice  to  state  that 
most  of  the  one  hundred  bowls  excavated  while  I  was  on  the 
scene  were  found  upside  down  in  the  ground,  as  will  be 
seen  from  the  illustration  on  page  448.  It  is  very  evident 
that  they  had  been  placed  thus  intentionally,  in  order  to  pre- 
vent the  demons  adjured  by  the  spiral  inscription  on  the 
inner  face  of  most  of  the  vases,  from  doing  any  harm  to  the 

^  Comp.  p.  337  with  p.  340. 


448 


EXI'LORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


people  living  in  that  neighborhood.  Sometimes  two  bowls 
facing  one  another  had  been  cemented  together  with  bitu- 
men.     In   one  case  an   inscribed    hen's  egg  was  concealed 


Hebrew  Incantation  Bowls  in  their  Original  Position 
Se-ve>:  placed  upside  doiun,  one  icith  the  inscribed  face  upivard 

under  the  bowl.  This  egg,  like  the  inscribed  skulls  previ- 
ously reported  (comp.  p.  440),  is  probablv  to  be  regarded 
as  a  sacrifice  to  those  demons  to  appease  their  wrath  and 
check  their  evil  influence.' 

The  excavation  of  those  upper  strata  also  enabled  me 
to  study  the  numerous  late  burials  contained  therein, 
which  almost  exclusivelv  belonged  to  the  post-Chris- 
tian period.  In  order  to  obtain  more  definite  results 
concerning  the  dates  of  other  tombs,  not  so  favorablv 
situated,  we  examined  a  section   of  the  ruins   to  the  north- 

'  Comp.  the  skulls  and  egg  discovered  in  the  mortar  of  the  Parthian  palace 
lying  on  the  top  of  the  ruins  of  Bel's  sanctuary,  p.  368,  above,  and  Pognon, 
Inscriptions  Manda'ites  des  Coups  de  Khouabir,  Paris,  1898,  pp.  2,  seq. 


DURING   lOTit   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      449 

west  of  the  temple,  which  was  Hterally  filled  with  graves, 
and  compared  their  forms  and  contents  with  the  other  ones. 
As  it  is  impossible  to  present  here  the  results  of  a  study  of 
more  than  2,500  tombs  excavated  by  all  the  four  expedi- 
tions at  Nuffar,  including  over  i,ioo  examined  during  the 
fourth  campaign,  I  confine  myself  to  stating  in  this  connec- 
tion that  with  but  few  exceptions  all  those  excavated  tombs 
belong  to  the  post-Babylonian  period.  But  it  was  also  as- 
certained that  prior  to  the  time  of  Sargon  I  (about  3800 
B.  c),  as  we  shall  see  presently,  Nippur  was  one  of  the 
sacred  burial-grounds  of  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  the  coun- 
try, who  cremated  their  dead  there,  as  they  did  at  Surghul 
and  El-Hibba.^ 

The  most  difficult  problem  confronting  me  was  the  ex- 
planation of  the  ruins  at  Bint  el-Amir  and  its  environ- 
ments, owing  to  the  previous  removal  and  frequent 
involuntary  destruction  of  much  valuable  material  on 
the  part  of  mv  predecessors.  Some  of  the  results  which 
I  obtained  this  time  were  incorporated  in  my  above  sketch 
of  the  second  and  third  campaigns.  The  other  more  im- 
portant ones  will  be  treated  briefly  below.  They  may  be 
summarized  as  follows  :  i.  A  stage-tower  of  smaller  dimen- 
sions existed  at  Nippur  before  Sargon  I  (about  3800 
B.  c).  2.  In  pre-Sargonic  times  the  ground  around  the 
sacred  enclosure  was  a  vast  graveyard,  a  regular  fire  necro- 
polis. 3.  One  of  the  names  of  the  stage-tower  of  Nippur 
suggested  the  idea  of  tomb  to  the  early  inhabitants  of  the 
country.  In  the  course  of  time  certain  xiggurrats  were  di- 
rectly designated  by  the  Babylonians  as  tombs  of  the  gods. 
4.  The  stage-tower  of  Bel  did  not  occupy  the  centre  of  the 
enclosed  platform,  but  the  southwest  section  of  it,  while 
the  northeast  part  was  reserved  for  "  the  house  of  Bel," 
his  principal  sanctuary,  which  stood  at  the  side  of  the 
stage-tower.      5.  The  temple  of  Bel  consisted  of  two  large 

^  Comp.  pp.  283,  seqq.,  above. 
34 


450  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

courts  adjoining  each  other,  the  northwest  court  with  the 
ziggurrat  and  "  the  house  of  Bel  "  representing  the  most 
holy  place  or  the  inner  court,  while  the  southeast  (outer) 
court  seems  to  have  been  studded  with  the  shrines  of  all 
the  different  gods  and  goddesses  worshipped  at  Nippur, 
including  one  for  Bel  himself.  6.  Imgur-Marduk  and  Nimit- 
Marduk^  mentioned  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  as  the  two 
walls  of  Nippur  {duru  and  shalkhu)^  cannot  have  surrounded 
the  whole  city.  According  to  the  results  of  the  excavations 
conducted  under  my  own  supervision,  only  the  temple  was 
enclosed  by  a  double  wall,  while  in  all  probability  the  city 
itself  remained  unprotected.  7.  The  large  complex  of 
buildings  covering  the  top  of  Bint  el-Amir  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  ancient  temple  below,  but  represents  a  huge 
fortified  Parthian  palace  grouped  around  and  upon  the  re- 
mains of  the  stage-tower  then  visible.  In  order  to  under- 
stand the  temple  correctly,  this  fortress  has  to  be  eliminated 
completely  from  the  ruins,  as  was  demanded  by  the  present 
writer  as  early  as  1889.^ 

A  thorough  treatment  of  the  whole  important  question 
will  be  found  in  a  special  work  entitled  "  Ekur,  the  Temple 
of  Bel  at  Nippur,"  which  will  be  fully  illustrated  and  accom- 
panied by  large  plans  and  diagrams  prepared  by  the  archi- 
tects of  the  expedition  according  to  my  reconstructions  and 
their  own  survey  of  the  actual  remains  still  existing.  For 
the  present  I  must  confine  myself  to  a  brief  sketch  of  the 
principal  results  as  obtained  by  the  combined  efforts  of  all 
the  members  of  the  staff  during  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth 
campaign  and  interpreted  by  the  present  writer. 

I.    An  examination  of  the  inscriptions  from  Tello,"  the  fact 

'  Comp.  p.  327,  above,  and  Peters'  "Nippur,"  vol,  ii,  p.  118: 
♦'  One  of  our  Assyriologists  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  ruins  we  had 
found  were  those  of  a  fortress   .    .    .    built  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  temple." 

^  Comp.  p.  232,  note  2,  above,  and  Hommel,  Aufsdfze  und  Abhand- 
lungen,  part  iii,  i   (Munich,  1901),  pp.  389,  seqq. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA     451 

that  all  the  Babylonian  temples  and  stage-towers  have  Su- 
merian  names,  and  other  considerations  had  convinced  me 
that  the  origin  of  the  ziggurrat  at  Nippur  must  lie  far  be- 
yond the  time  of  Ur-Gur.  The  mere  circumstances  that  the 
pavement  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin  covered  about  the  same 
space  between  the  inner  wall  and  the  l^ittv  ziggurrat  as  those 
of  the  following  rulers  ;  that  nowhere  in  the  excavated  large 
section  of  the  temple  court  it  extended  beneath  the  tower ; 
that  the  store-room  or  cellar  found  within  the  southeast  en- 
closing wall  by  the  third  expedition  (pp.  386,  390,  above), 
occupied  exactly  the  same  place  at  the  time  of  Sargon  as  in 
the  days  of  Ur-Gur,  —  indicated  sufficiently  that  the  temple 
enclosure  showed  practically  the  same  characteristic  features 
at  3800  B.  c.  as  at  2800  b.  c. 

The  massive  L-shaped  structure  (p.  29Si  above)  under- 
lying the  east  corner  of  Ur-Gur's  ziggurrat,  and  constructed 
of  the  same  unusually  large  bricks  as  those  which  thus 
far  at  Nippur  have  been  connected  exclusively  with  the 
names  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin,  evidently  was  the  work 
of  a  member  of  that  powerful  ancient  dynasty.  As  it 
descended  eleven  feet  below  Naram-Sin's  pavement,  it 
is  also  clear  that  this  structure,  which  puzzled  Haynes 
so  much,  must  have  served  a  similar  purpose  as  Ur- 
Gur's  crude  brick  pavement,  which  was  eight  feet  deep  and 
extended  all  around  and  beneath  the  edges  of  the  stage- 
tower  in  support  of  the  latter.  In  other  words,  it  was  the 
foundation  for  the  east  corner  of  Naram-Sin's  ziggurrat. 
Similar  foundations  may  be  found  at  the  three  other  cor- 
ners, but  it  is  more  probable  to  assume  that  it  occurs  only 
at  this  particular  point,  where  the  necessity  of  an  extraordi- 
nary foundation  can  be  explained  without  difficulty.  We 
saw  above  (p.  397),  that  Haynes  discovered  a  ruined  vaulted 
aqueduct,  about  3  feet  high,  beneath  it.  With  the  exception 
of  a  small  section  near  the  orifice  (directly  below  the  ancient 
curb  and  supported  by  the  T-shaped  structure)   the  whole 


452  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Upper  part  of  the  vault  had  collapsed  without  leaving  exten- 
sive traces  of  the  baked  material  of  which  it  originally  con- 
sisted. On  the  other  hand,  large  numbers  of  pre-Sargonic 
bricks  were  found  in  the  lower  row  of  Naram-Sin's  pavement. 
It  seems  therefore  reasonable  to  connect  the  two  facts  and  to 
explain  the  situation  as  follows.  About  the  time  of  Naram- 
Sin,  perhaps  even  in  consequence  of  his  enlarging  the  heavy 
mass  of  the  ziggurrat,  the  ancient  aqueduct  below  had  caved 
in.  In  order  to  secure  a  more  solid  foundation  for  the  east 
corner,  it  became  necessary  to  ascertain  the  cause  of  the  sub- 
sequent depression  of  the  surface.  Naram-Sin  therefore 
descended  about  twelve  feet,  removed  the  rubbish,  saved  all 
the  good  bricks  for  his  pavement,  and  built  the  peculiarly 
shaped  massive  structure  eleven  feet  high  directly  over  it, 
in  order  to  prevent  the  formation  of  crevices  in  his  structure 
by  the  uneven  settling  of  the  disturbed  ground  below  it. 

This  much  is  sure,  that  the  mere  existence  of  this  solid 
foundation  at  the  eastern  corner  of  the  ziggurral  at  the  time 
of  Naram-Sin  necessarily  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that  also 
a  large  building  which  it  was  intended  to  support,  a  stage- 
tower,  must  have  existed  at  that  ancient  period  in  Nippur. 
This  conclusion  is  fully  corroborated  by  the  fact  that  below 
Ur-Gur's  gray-colored  bricks  in  the  centre  of  the  ziggurrat, 
other  similar  bricks  were  found,  which  in  texture,  color  and 
size  are  identical  with  those  of  Naram-Sin's  store-room  or 
cellar,  in  the  southeast  enclosing  wall.  The  southeast  face 
of  this  earlv  ziggurrat  was  actually  discovered  by  means 
of  a  tunnel  following  a  pre-Sargonic  water-course  which  ran 
into  the  strata  below  Ur-Gur's  stage-tower.  It  lay  four  feet 
behind  Ur-Gur's  facing  wall,  and  was  carefully  built  of  the 
same  crude  bricks  just  mentioned,  which  form  the  kernel  of 
the  ziggurrat} 

Since  the  water-course  thus  traced  continued  its  way  under 

1  Comp.  the  zinctype  "  Section  of  the  Stage-Tower  and  the  Adjoining 
Southeast  Court,"  in  the  chapter  on  the  topography  of  Nippur,  below. 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA     453 

Naram-Sin's  tower,  and  sloped  gently  from  a  point  near  and 
within  the  pre-Sargonic  curb  towards  the  former,  it  was  evi- 
dent that  if  a  pre-Sargonic  xiggurrat  existed  at  Nippur  it 
must  have  been  considerably  smaller  than  that  of  Naram- 
Sin  and  lay  entirely  within  and  largely  below  it.  In  order 
to  ascertain  all  the  desirable  details  both  of  Naram-Sin's 
and  of  this  possibly  earlier  structure,  it  would  have  been 
necessary  to  remove  Bel's  ziggurrat  completely  by  peeling 
off  layer  after  layer.  This  method  is  the  only  one  by 
which  the  precise  nature  and  history  of  this  important  part 
of  the  venerable  sanctuary  can  be  determined  satisfactorily, 
but  it  involves  much  time,  labor  and  expense,  and  the 
destruction  of  one  of  the  earliest  landmarks  of  the  country. 

All  that  the  Philadelphia  expedition  could  do  under  the 
circumstances  was  to  operate  with  a  few  carefully  made  tun- 
nels —  a  somewhat  dangerous  proceeding  in  view  of  the  pon- 
derous mass  of  crude  bricks  above,  but  one  already  success- 
fully begun  by  Haynes  in  previous  years,  and  without  any 
serious  accident  also  continued  by  our  ablest  workmen  during 
the  fourth  campaign.  It  seems,  how^ever,  absolutely  essen- 
tial, in  view  of  the  important  problem  before  us,  that  a  com- 
plete vertical  section,  about  a  fourth  of  the  whole  mass, 
should  be  cut  out  of  the  ziggurrat  at  one  of  its  four  corners 
by  a  future  fifth  expedition.  The  smooth  and  plastered 
surface  of  the  southeast  side  of  a  pre-Sargonic  ziggurrat  built 
of  crude  bricks  was  discovered  at  two  places  about  forty  feet 
distant  from  each  other.  It  lay  nearly  fourteen  feet  within 
the  outer  edge  of  Ur-Gur's  facing  wall,  and  was  traced  for 
about  six  to  ten  feet  in  its  descent  to  the  ancient  level 
of  the  plain.  Whether  and  how  far  it  went  below  that 
point  could  not  be  ascertained  without  exposing  the  work- 
men and  the  explorers  to  the  risk  of  being  entombed 
and  suffocated  suddenly  within  the  sacred  precinct  of  Bel. 

Two  similar  but  sloping  tunnels  were  carried  into  the  mass 
beneath  the  northeast  side  of  the  ziggurrat.     But  as  the  clay 


454  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

was  too  wet,  the  light  too  poor  and  the  trenches  perhaps 
too  short,  they  did  not  reveal  positive  traces  of  the  earlier 
building.  We  were,  however,  rewarded  by  another  discov- 
ery made  in  the  most  northern  trench.  At  a  point  several 
feet  below  the  level  of  Naram-Sin's  pavement  and  still  out- 
side of  the  ziggurrat^  we  came  upon  a  well-defined  small  bed 
of  black  and  gray  ashes  3  to  4  inches  high.  Several  rude 
blocks  of  stone  lay  around  it,  and  the  fragments  of  a 
bronze^  sword  or  dagger  were  found  among  the  ashes. 
What  did  these  few  ancient  remains  from  below  the  Sargon 
level  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  ziggurrat  indicate  ?  Haynes 
had  found  such  beds  of  ashes  mixed  with  fragments  of  pot- 
tery and  occasionally  accompanied  by  objects  in  copper  and 
bronze  (nails,  knives,  battle  axes,  portions  of  vessels)  or 
beads  in  stone,  silver,  and  even  gold,  rings  and  other  jewelry, 
seal  cylinders,  etc.,  everywhere  in  the  lower  strata  to  the 
southeast  of  the  stage-tower  (comp.  pp.  4^01,  seqq.).  My 
curiosity  was  aroused,  and  I  was  determined  to  make  an  effort 
to  ascertain  the  meaning  of  these  remarkable  relics. 

1.  Unfortunately  the  greater  part  of  the  southeast  section 
of  the  temple  enclosure  had  been  removed  before  my  arri- 
val. But  Haynes'  perpendicular  cuts  enabled  me  at  least 
to  obtain  an  excellent  side  view  of  all  the  single  strata  of  the 
remaining  unexplored  portions  from  the  Sargon  level  down 
to  the  virgin  soil.  As  soon  as  I  began  to  examine  them  one 
after  another,  I  was  struck  with  the  enormous  mass  of  larger 
and  smaller  fragments  of  pottery  intermingled  with  ashes 
which  peeped  out  of  the  ground  wherever  my  eye  glanced. 
I   set  to  work   to    extricate    these    pieces  carefully   with   a 

^  In  which  antimony  took  the  place  of  tin.  The  analysis  ot  one  of  the 
fragments  by  the  late  Dr.  Helm  of  Danzig  showed  96.38  parts  of  copper, 
1.73  parts  of  antimony,  0.24  part  of  iron,  0.22  part  of  nickel,  1.43  parts 
of  oxygen  and  loss,  traces  of  lead.  Comp.  Helm  and  Hilprecht  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Berliner  anthropologischen  Gesellschnft,  session  of  February 
16,   1901,  p.   159. 


DURING  IQTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      455 

large  knife,  in  order  to  secure  the  necessary  information 
with  regard  to  the  original  sizes,  forms  and  structures  of 
these  broken  terra-cotta  vessels.  Without  exception  they 
belonged  to  large,  thick  urns  of  various  shapes,  or  small 
pointed  vases,  peculiarly  formed  cups,  dishes  and  similar 
household  vessels.  In  descending  graduallv  from  the 
pavement  of  Naram-Sin,  I  suddenly  came,  three  feet 
below  it,  upon  a  group  of  potsherds  lying  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  suggest  at  once  to  the  observer  the  original  form 
of  a  large  vase,  to  which  they  belonged. 

It  was  a  large  oblong-ovate  jar  over  2  feet  long  and 
nearly  i  j4  feet  at  its  largest  diameter.  The  heavy  weight 
of  the  debris  of  six  thousand  years  lying  on  the  top  of 
it  had  crushed  the  vessel,  which  was  placed  almost  hori- 
zontally in  the  ground,  into  hundreds  of  small  pieces. 
It  contained  gray  ashes  mixed  with  small  bits  of  charred 
wood  and  earth,  and  two  long  but  thin  streaks  of  yellow- 
ish ashes.  Without  difficulty  I  could  determine  that  the 
gray  ashes  represented  the  remains  of  bones  and  wood 
consumed  by  fire,  and  the  yellowish  ashes  those  of  two 
large  bones  which  had  decayed  gradually,  but  apparently 
had  belonged  to  the  same  human  body.  There  were 
four  or  five  fragmentary  small  cups  and  dishes  in  the 
urn.  They  were  in  a  much  better  condition  than  the 
large  jar  which  enclosed  them.  Two  of  them,  which  acci- 
dentally had  stood  almost  upright  and  consequently  offered 
much  less  resistance  to  the  pressure  from  above  than 
those  which  lay  on  their  sides,  were  nearly  whole,  and 
had  retained  even  the  forms  of  decayed  dates  and  fish- 
bones in  the  fine  earth  that  filled  them.  Without  know- 
ing it,  Haynes  had  cut  through  the  remains  of  this  jar 
lengthwise,  leaving  only  half  of  it  for  my  examination. 
There  could  be  no  doubt,  we  had  here  a  true  pre-Sargonic 
burial.  The  human  body  contained  in  it  had  been  sub- 
jected to  cremation  without,  however,  being  destroyed  com- 


456  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

pletely  by  this  process.  Both  the  ashes  and  the  bones  had 
afterwards  been  gathered,  and  with  food  and  drink  placed 
in  this  jar  were  buried  in  the  sacred  ground  around  the  zig- 
gurrat.  The  ash-bed  unearthed  at  the  northeast  side  of  the 
stage-tower  represented  the  place  where  another  body  had 
been  cremated,  apparently  that  of  a  man,  perhaps  a  warrior, 
as  the  fragments  of  a  sword  found  in  the  ashes  suggested. 

In  the  light  of  this  discovery  and  Haynes'  previously 
reported  pre-Sargonic  burial  (pp.  403  seq.)^  of  all  the  ash- 
beds  and  their  characteristic  objects,  so  often  mentioned  but 
completely  misunderstood  by  him,^  it  was  a  comparatively 
easy  task  for  me  to  trace  the  outlines  of  a  number  of 
other  urns,  though  even  more  injured.  1  also  secured  a 
good  many  tolerably  well-preserved  cups  and  dishes,  or  large 
fragments  of  the  same,  from  the  debris  that  filled  the  whole 
ground  from  the  undisturbed  soil  deep  below  the  ancient 
plain  level  to  the  pavement  of  Naram-Sin,  far  above  the 
latter.  In  short,  I  gathered  sufficient  evidence  to  show  that 
all  these  ash-beds  occurring  in  a  stratum  twenty-five  to  thirty 
feet  deep  on  all  the  four  sides  of  the  ziggurrat  are  to  be 
regarded  as  places  where  human  bodies  had  been  cremated. 
The  thousands  of  urns  discovered  above  and  below  them, 
and  as  a  rule  badly  crushed,  but  in  some  cases  well  pre- 
served, are  funeral  vases,  in  which  the  ashes  and  bones  left 
by  the  cremation,  together  with  objects  once  dear  to  the  per- 
son, besides  food  and  drink,  were  placed  and  buried.  The 
fragments  of  unbaked  walls  and  rooms  repeatedly  met  with 
in  these  lowest  strata,'-^  and  always  containing  whole  or  broken 
urns,  are  remains  of  tombs,  so-called  funeral  chambers.  The 
large  number  of  terra-cotta  pipes  composed  of  several  (often 
perforated)  rings,  and  descending  eight,  ten,  and  even  more 
feet  from  the  surface  of  the  ancient  plain  and  from  higher 

^  Comp.  pp.  402,  segq.,  419  above. 

2  In  two  instances  the  rooms  had  been  vaulted,  and  were  constructed  of 
baked  plano-convex  bricks. 


DURING  19™   CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      457 

levels,  without,  however,  reaching  the  water  level,  are  drains 
which  protected  the  single  tombs  and  the  gradually  rising 
mound  as  a  whole.  The  less  frequent  wells,  always  con- 
structed of  plano-convex  bricks,  were  to  provide  the  dead 
with  that  "  clear  [but  I  fear  in  this  case  often  brackish  !] 
water,"  which  the  departed  pious  souls  were  believed  to  drink 
in  the  lower  regions/ 

Koldewey  has  described  the  fire  necropoles  of  Surghul 
and  El-Hibba  (comp.  pp.  283,  seqq.,  above),  so  intelligently 
that  it  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  all  the  details  of  my  own 
investigations  in  the  pre-Sargonic  cemetery  of  ancient  Nip- 
pur, which  confirm  the  German  scholar's  results  in  all  essen- 
tial details  and  at  the  same  time  prove  conclusively  that 
his  view  concerning  the  great  age  of  these  two  South  Baby- 
lonian ruins  is  perfectly  correct.  Suffice  it  to  state,  that 
here  as  there  "  ash-graves "  and  "  body-graves  "  occur 
alongside  each  other  in  the  upper  layers,  while  the  former, 
as  the  older  burials,  appear  exclusively  in  the  lower  strata. 
In  all  the  three  ruins  we  observe  the  same  peculiar  forms 
and  positions  of  urns  and  vases,  the  same  kinds  of  sacrifices 
offered  in  connection  with  the  cremation  and  the  final  burial, 
the  same  customs  of  depositing  weapons,  instruments,  seals, 
jewelry,  tovs,  etc.,  both  with  the  body  to  be  cremated  and 
with  the  remains  interred,  the  same  praxis  of  building  drains, 
wells  and  houses  for  the  dead,  the  same  characteristic  deep 
red  color  of  so  many  potsherds  (pointing  to  their  long  ex- 
posure to  an  open  fire),  and,  above  all,  the  same  scattering 
of  ashes,  charred  pieces  of  wood,  fragments  of  vases  and 
other  remains  of  human  burials  which  is  so  appalling  to  the 

'  Apart  from  other  cuneiform  passages,  comp.  the  closing  words  ot  sev- 
eral recently  published  terra-cotta  cones  from  Babylonian  tombs  :  If  a  per- 
son finds  a  coffin  and  treats  it  with  due  respect,  "  his  manes  may  drink  clear 
water  below!"  Comp.  Thureau-Dangin  in  Orie?it.  Litteratur-Zeitung, 
Jan.  15,  1 90 1,  pp.  5,  seqq.,  and  Delitzsch  in  Mitteilungen  der  Deutschen 
Orient-Gesellschaft,  no.   11,  pp.   5,  seq. 


458  EXPLORATIONS  IX  BIBLE  LANDS 

senses  and  yet  was  the  natural  result  of  the  combined  action 
of  man  and  the  elements. 

It  will  now  be  clear  why  I  was  unable  to  accept  Haynes' 
view  as  stated  above  (p.  395),  with  regard  to  the  large  solid 
structure  within  the  ancient  curb,  which  he  interpreted  as 
an  immense  altar.  The  white  ash-bed  found  on  its  hollowed 
surface,  its  rim  of  bitumen,  /.  e.,  a  material  liberally  used  in 
connection  with  the  cremations,  its  extraordinary  size  (14  feet 
long  and  8  feet  wide),  the  ash-bin  discovered  near  its  base, 
and  the  peculiar  surroundings  suggest  the  idea  that  it  rather 
represents  one  of  the  crematoriums  on  which  the  bodies  of 
the  dead  were  reduced  to  ashes.  As  it  stood  within  the 
sacred  enclosure  we  involuntarily  connect  the  cremation 
and  burying  of  the  bodies  of  all  these  thousands  of  ancient 
Babylonians,  who  found  their  last  resting-place  around  the 
sanctuary  of  their  god,  with  the  ziggurrat  of  Bel  itself, 
remembering  that  at  El-Hibba  Koldewey  also  excavated  a 
two-staged  ziggurrat,  or,  according  to  his  theory,  "  the  sub- 
structure of  an  especially  important  tomb,"  ^  around  the 
base  of  which,  exactly  as  at  Nippur,  nothing  but  "  ash- 
graves  "   occurred.      But  we  then  naturally  ask  :  What  was 

^  The  stage-tower  of  El-Hibba  was  round,  consisted  of  two  stages,  and 
was  provided  with  a  water-conduit  like  that  of  Nippur.  Comp,  pp.  286, 
seq.,  above,  and  Zeitschrift  fur  Jssyriologie,  vol.  ii,  pp.  422,  seq.  It 
appears  almost  strange  at  present,  that  the  German  explorer  discovered  and 
excavated  one  of  the  earliest  Babylonian  xiggurrats  thus  so  far  known,  with- 
out realizing  it.  In  view  of  the  existence  of  a  stage-tower  at  El-Hibba,  I  am 
convinced  that  both  Surghul  and  El-Hibba  cannot  have  been  cemeteries  exclu- 
sively. The  German  excavations  carried  on  at  the  two  places  were  by  far 
too  brief  and  limited  compared  with  the  enormous  extent  of  those  ruins  to 
settle  this  question.  All  the  pre-Sargonic  ruins  of  Babylonia,  as  far  as  I  have 
had  an  opportunity  to  examine  them,  consist  largely  of  tombs.  They  occur 
in  great  numbers  also  at  NufFar,  Fara,  Abu  Hatab,  and  other  mounds,  but  it 
would  be  utterly  wrong  to  pronounce  them  for  this  reason  nothing  but  "  fire- 
necropoles."  The  pre-Sargonic  monuments  of  art  and  the  very  ancient 
cuneiform  tablets  coming  from  all  those  mounds  enable  us  to  speak  more 
positively  on  this  question. 


DURING  10TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA       459 

the  original  significance  of  a  Babylonian  ziggurrat  ?  Were 
these  stage-towers,  like  the  step  pyramids  of  Medum  and 
Saqqara  in  Egypt/  in  certain  cases  at  least,  only  "  especially 
important  tombs"?  Did  the  Sumerian  population  of  the 
country  after  all  somehow  connect  the  idea  of  death  or 
tomb  with  Bel's  high-towering  terrace  at  Nippur? 

3.  It  is  generally  known  that  Strabo  (16:5),  in  speaking 
of  Babylon,  mentions  "  the  sepulchre  of  Bel  "  (6  rov  Bt^Xov 
Tct^os),  evidently  referring  to  Etemenanki,  the  famous  stage- 
tower  of  the  metropolis  on  the  Euphrates,  which  he  seems 
to  regard  as  a  sepulchral  monument"  erected  in  honor  of 
Marduk  or  Merodach,  "  the  Bai  of  Babel  "  or  "  the  Bel  of 
the  gods."^  In  a  similar  manner  Diodorus  (ii,  7)  informs 
us,  that  Semiramis  built  a  tower  in  Nineveh  as  a  tomb  for 
her  husband  Ninos,'*  a  story  apparently  based  upon  the  con- 
ception that  the  ziggurrat  of  Nineveh  likewise  was  a  tomb. 
This  view  of  classical  writers  concerning  two  of  the  most 
prominent  stage-towers  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  has  never 
been  taken  very  seriously  by  scholars,  as  nothing  in  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions  seemed  to  justify  it.  But  we  may 
well  ask  :  Are  there  really  no  passages  in  the  Babylonian 
literature  which  would  indicate  that  the  early  inhabitants 
of  Shumer  and  Akkad  themselves  associated  the  idea  of 
"  tomb  "  with  their  stage-towers  ? 

^  Comp.  the  illustrations  of  the  two  pyramids,  under  *'  Excavations  in 
Egypt,"  below. 

^  Comp,  Ktesias,  29,  21,  seq.,  Aelian,  yar.  hist.,  xiii,  3. 

^  Merodach  of  Babylon  is  thus  styled  as  the  city's  supreme  god  who  be- 
came heir  to  the  rank  and  titles  of  Bel  of  Nippur,  the  "  father  "  and  "  king 
of  the  gods."  While  reading  the  last  proofs  of  this  book,  I  received  Pro- 
fessor Zimmern's  important  contribution  to  the  history  of  Babylonian  religion 
incorporated  with  Schrader's  Die  Keilinschriften  und  das  Alte  Testament,  3d 
edition,  Berlin,  1902,  part  2.  Comp.  pp.  355,  seq.,  373,  seq.,  of  this 
work. 

*  Interpreted  by  Hommel  as  Nin-ib,  by  the  present  writer  as  the  Sume- 
rian Nin  (meaning  "  lord  "  and  *'  lady  "  )  -f-  the  Greek  ending  0%. 


460  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Apart  from  Rawlinson  and  other  earlier  explorers,  who 
actually  searched  for  the  two  above-mentioned  tombs,  it  was 
Hommel  who  first  expressed  it  as  his  conviction  that  "the 
Babylonian  stage-towers  originally  were  sepulchral  monu- 
ments,"'  and  that  Ningirsu's  temple  at  Tello  was  a  combi- 
nation of  a  sanctuary  for  the  god  and  of  a  mausoleum  for 
Gudea,  his  patesi.  Though  the  former  statement  is  too 
general  and  comprehensive  according  to  the  scanty  material 
at  our  disposal,  and  the  latter  incorrect,  since,  according  to 
the  context,  Gudea  clearly  erected  not  his  own,  but  his  god's 
"sepulchral  chapel"  in  the  temple  of  Ningirsu,  Hommel 
deserves  credit  for  having  recognized  an  important  fact  in 
connection  with  Babylonian  stage-towers  and  for  having 
endeavored  to  find  proofs  for  his  theory  in  the  inscriptions, 
before  he  could  have  known  of  the  results  of  a  series  of  in- 
vestigations carried  on  by  the  present  writer  at  Nuffar  in 
March  and  April,  1900. 

It  does  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  this  book  to  treat 
all  the  cuneiform  passages  which  directly  or  indirectly  bear 
upon  the  important  question  under  consideration.  I  shall 
therefore  confine  myself  to  a  single  text  from  the  latest 
excavations  at  Nuffar  which  will  throw  some  light  on  the 
way  in  which  the  Babylonians  viewed  the  ziggurrat  ot  Bel 
at  Nippur,  and  to  a  few  passages  of  published  inscriptions 
referring  to  other  ziggurrats. 

Among  the  antiquities  found  in  the  debris  that  covered 
the  pavement  of  Ashurbanapal  near  the  east  corner  of  the 
court  of  the  stage-tower  at  Nippur,  there  were  three  inscribed 
fragments  of  baked  clav  which  seemed  to  belong  to  a  barrel 
cylinder.  When  trving  to  fit  them  together,  1  found  that 
thev  constituted  the  greater  part  of  a  truncated  cone  of  an 
interesting  shape"  similar  to  that  of  the  recently  published 

1  Comp.  Hommel,  AufsatZ-e  und  Abhandlufigen,  part  iii,  i  (Munich, 
1901),  pp.  389,  seqq.,  especially  p.   393. 

^  Comp.  p.  457,  above,   note.      The  same  peculiar  form   is  known  from 


DURING  lOrn  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      461 

cones  from  Babylonian  tombs.  The  curious  form  of  the 
document  attracted  my  immediate  attention.  On  closer 
examination,  it  proved  to  be  a  building  record  of  twenty- 
five  lines  of  neo-Babvlonian  cuneiform  characters  inscribed 


Truncated  Cone  containing  Ashurbanapal's  Account  of  his  Restoration  of  the  Stage-Tower 

of  Nippur. 

lengthwise  by  "  Ashurbanapal,  king  of  Assyria."  Only  lines 
15—19  of  the  mutilated  legend  are  of  importance  for  the  sub- 

Nabopolassar's  fine  cylinder,  now  in  Philadelphia,  and  containing  his  building 
record  o'i  Etemenanki,  "the  tower  of  Babel"  (comp.  Hilprecht,  "The 
Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.  i,  part  i,  pi.  xiii).  A  "cylin- 
der "  from  Nuffar  containing  Samsu-iluna's  account  of  his  restoration  of  the 
duru  (inner  wall)  of  the  temple  of  Bel,  and  a  cone  in  the  Louvre  of  Paris, 
containing  Hammurabi's  record  of  his  construction  "  of  the  wall  and  canal 
of  Sippara  "  (according  to  information  received  by  letter  from  Thureau-Dan- 
gin),  also  show  the  same  form.  It  doubtless  represents  the  prototype  of  the 
later  barrel-cylinder.  Nevertheless,  it  remains  a  most  remarkable  fact  that 
cylinders  of  this  peculiar  form  were  deposited  both  in  the  ziggurrats  and  their 
enclosing  walls,  and  also  in  the  ancient  tombs  which,  as  we  now  know,  origi- 
nally surrounded  the  former. 


462  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

ject  under  consideration.  I  quote  them  in  the  king's  own 
language  :  "  E-gigunu,  the  ziggurrat  of  Nippur,  the  founda- 
tion of  which  is  placed  in  the  breast  of  the  ocean,  the  walls 
of  which  had  grown  old,  and  which  had  fallen  into  decay  — 
I  built  that  house  with  baked  bricks  and  bitumen,  and  com- 
pleted its  construction.  With  the  art  of  the  god  of  the  bricks 
I  restored  it  and  made  it  bright  as  the  day.  I  raised  its  head 
like  a  mountain  and  caused  its  splendor  to  shine." 

This  inscription  furnishes  us  a  new  name  of  the  ziggurrat 
of  Nippur,  E-gigunu^  "  House  of  the  tomb,"  the  other  two 
names  of  the  same  building,  with  which  we  were  familiar  be- 
fore, being  Imgarsag^  "  Mountain  of  the  wind  "  or  "  Mt. 
Airy,"  and  E-sagash,  "  House  of  the  decision."  E-gigunu, 
however,  was  not  altogether  unknown  to  us.  There  are 
several  cuneiform  passages  in  which  it  appears  in  parallel- 
ism with  Ekur,  "  House  of  the  mountain,"  the  well-known 
temple  of  Bel  and  Beltis  at  Nippur.'^  A  fourth  name,  to  state 
this  distinctly  here,  occurs  in  another  unpublished  text  in- 
scribed on  a  large  vase  of  Gudea  also  belonging  to  the  results 
of  our  latest  excavations  at  Nuffar,  namely,  Dur-anki,  "  Link 
of  heaven  and  earth."  How  was  it  possible  that  the  ziggur- 
rat of  Nippur,  which  constitutes  the  most  prominent  part  of 
the  whole  temple  complex,  this  high  towering  terrace,  which 
"  connects  heaven  and  earth,"  could  appear  to  the  Babyloni- 
ans as  "  the  house  of  the  tomb  "  at  the  same  time  ? 

Most  of  the  names  of  Babylonian  temples  express  a  cos- 
mic idea.  According  to  the  old  Babylonian  conception  of  the 
gods  and  their  relation  to  the  world's  edifice,  En-lil  or  Bel  of 
Nippur  is  "the  king  of  heaven  and  earth,"  or  "the  father" 
and  "  king  of  the  gods  "  and  "  the  king  of  the  lands,"  /.  <?., 
the  earth.    Bel's   sphere  of  influence,  therefore,  is  what  we 

1  A  fifth  (unknown)  name  seems  to  have  stood  in  the  mutilated  passage, 
ii  R.  50,  if  the  present  sign  of  line  4,  a,  was  copied  correctly  from  the  original. 

2  Comp.  Jensen,  Die  Kosmologie  der  Babylonier,  Strasburg,  1890,  pp. 
186,  seq. 


DURING  lOTH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA     463 

generally  style  "  the  world."  It  extends  from  the  upper  or 
heavenly  ocean  (the  seat  of  Anu)  to  the  lower  or  terrestrial 
ocean  (the  seat  of  Ea),  which  was  regarded  as  the  continuation 
of  the  former  around  and  below  the  earth.  In  other  words, 
Bel  rules  an  empire  which  includes  the  whole  world  with 
the  exclusion  of  the  upper  and  lower  oceans,  or  an  empire 
confined  on  the  one  hand  by  the  starry  firmament  which 
keeps  back  the  waters  of  the  upper  ocean  (Gen.  i  :  6-8)  and 
is  called  heaven  (an),  and  on  the  other  hand  by  that  lower 
"  firmament  "  which  keeps  the  waters  of  the  lower  ocean  in 
their  place  [Gen.  i  :  9,  10)  and  is  called  earth  {ki)}  But  his 
empire  not  only  lies  between  these  two  boundaries,  it  practi- 
cally includes  them.  The  ziggurrat  of  Bel  is  "  the  link  of 
heaven  and  earth"  which  connects  the  two  extreme  parts 
of  his  empire  ;  that  is,  it  is  the  local  representation  of  the 
great  mythological  "  mountain  of  the  world,"  ^Kharsag- 
kurkura^  ^  structure  "the  summit  of  which  reaches  unto 
heaven,  and  the  foundation  of  which  is  laid  in  the  clear 
apsu^' "  i.  e.^  in  the  clear  waters  of  the  subterranean  ocean, — 
epithets  afterwards  applied  to  other  Babylonian  ziggur- 
rats^  some  of  which  bear  even  the  same,  or  at  least  a  similar, 

^  On  the  Babylonian  conception  of  the  world's  edifice,  comp.  especially 
Jensen,  Die  Kosmologie  der  Babyionier,  Strasburg,  1890  ;  Hommel,  Das  baby- 
lonische  Weltbild  in  Aufsatze  und  Abhandlungen,  part  iii,  i,  Munich,  1901, 
pp.  344-349  ;  and  a  monograph  received  immediately  before  the  issue  of 
this  book.  It  is  written  by  one  of  my  pupils.  Dr.  Hugo  Radau,  and  bears  the 
title,  "  The  Creation-Story  of  Genesis  i,  a  Sumerian  Theogony  and  Cosmo- 
gony "  (Chicago,  London,  1902),  —  a  very  useful  and  commendable  treatise, 
which,  however,  might  have  been  improved  considerably,  if  the  author  had 
written  in  a  more  becoming  manner  about  one  of  his  teachers.  Professor 
Hommel,  to  whose  lectures  and  extraordinary  personal  efforts  in  his  behalf 
at  Munich  he  owes  some  of  his  best  knowledge.  Much  valuable  material  is 
also  found  in  several  writings  of  A.  Jeremias,  Winckler,  and  Zimmern. 

'^  Comp.    the   poetical  passage  quoted  above,  p.  304,  from  a    hymn  ad- 
dressed to  Bel  and  his  consort.      Bel  therefore  is  designated  (ii  R.  54,  4,  a) 
ideographically  also  as  the   god  of  Dur-an  (abbreviation  for  Dur-an-hi)  or 
even  "  the  great  mountain  "  itself  (^shadu  rabu). 
35 


464  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

name.  Thus,  e.  g.,  the  ziggurrat  of  Shamash,  both  at  Sip- 
para  ^  and  at  Larsa,  was  called  E-Duranki^  "  House  of  the 
link  of  heaven  and  earth,"  "^  or  abbreviated  E-Duranna^ 
"House  of  the  link  of  heaven,"  and  the  ziggurrat  of  Mar- 
duk  at  Babylon,  Etemenanki,  "  House  of  the  foundation  of 
heaven  and  earth." 

Bel,  "  the  lord  "  par  excellence,  who  took  the  place  of 
the  Sumerian  En-lil  in  the  Semitic  pantheon,  is,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  king  of  this  "  middle  empire."  His  manifesta- 
tion is  "  the  wind  "  (///),  and  his  name  designates  him  there- 
fore as  "the  lord  [en]  of  the  wind  (///)  "  or  "  storm,"  and  of 
all  those  other  phenomena  which  frequently  accompany  it, 
"thunder,"  "  lightning,"  etc.  The  hundreds  of  terra-cotta 
images  of  Bel  or  En-lil  discovered  at  Nippur  accordinglv 
represent  him  generally  as  an  old  man  (a  real  "  father  of 
the  gods  ")  with  a  long  flowing  beard,  and  a  thunderbolt  or 
some  other  weapon  in  his  hand.^  He  and  his  consort  Beltis 
reside  in  a  house  on  the  top  of  the  great  "  mountain  of  the 
world,"  which  reaches  unto  heaven  (Gen.  ii  :  4).  There 
the  gods  were  born,^  and  from  thence  "  the  king  of  heaven 
and  earth  "  hurls  down  his  thunderbolts.  This  house  is 
localized  in  Ekur  ("  House  of  the  mountain  "),  Bel's 
famous  temple  at  Nippur.  Though  this  name  generally 
designates  the  whole  temple  complex  in  the  inscriptions, 
originally,  as  the  etymology  of  the  word  indicates,  it  can 
have  been  applied  only  to  the  most  important  part  of  it, 

^  I  infer  this  from  the  fact  that  an  ancient  Icing  of  Sippara,  known  from  a 
text  of  the  library  of  Ashurbanapal,  has  the  name  Enme-Duranhi,  concerning 
whom  comp.  Zimmern,  in  the  third  edition  of  Schrader's  Keilinschriften  und 
das  Alte  Testament,  vol.  i,  part  2  (Leipzig,  1902J,  pp.  532,  seqq. 

^  Comp.  also  Jensen,  /.  c,  p.  485. 

^  For  the  present  comp.  the  illustration  facing  p.  342,  above. 

*  Sargon,  '*  Khorsabad,"  155,  seq.  :  «'  The  gods  Ea,  Sin,  Shamash,  Nebo, 
Adad,  Ninib,  and  their  sublime  consorts,  who  are  born  legitimately  in  the 
house  of  [situated  on  the  top  of]  the  great  mountain  of  the  world,  the  moun- 
tain of  •  the  nether  world.'  " 


DURING  19™  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      465 

i.  e.,  the  shrine  which  stood  on  the  top  of  the  ziggurrat. 
This  high-towering  terrace  being  regarded  as  the  "  link 
which  connects  heaven  and  earth,"  that  divine  palace  resting 
on  it  was  a  heavenly  and  terrestrial  residence  at  the  same  time. 
This  stage-tower,  however,  also  penetrates  far  into  the 
earth,  its  foundation  being  laid  in  the  waters  of  the  lower 
ocean.  On  the  one  hand  it  rises  from  the  earth,  inhabited 
by  man,  unto  heaven,  the  realm  of  the  gods  ;  on  the  other, 
it  descends  to  "  the  great  city  "  [urugal)  of  the  dead,  the 
realm  of  the  departed  souls.  For,  according  to  Babylonian 
conception,  "  the  nether  world"  [Aralu)^  the  abode  of  the 
dead,  lies  directly  below  and  within  the  earth,  or,  more  ex- 
actly, in  the  hollow  space  formed  by  the  lower  part  {kigal) 
of  the  earth  (which  resembles  an  upset  round  boat,  a  so- 
called  qufa),  and  by  the  lower  ocean,  which  at  the  same  time 
encircles  this  "  land  without  return."  The  mountain  of  the 
world,  therefore,  is  also  called  "  the  mountain  of  the  nether 
world "  {shad  Aralil)  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions.^  As 
gigunUy  "grave,"  "tomb,"  is  used  metonymically  as  a  syn- 
onym of  Aralu,  "the  nether  world,""  it  follows  that  the 
■ziggurrat  of  Nippur,  which  is  the  local  representation  of 
the  great  mountain  of  the  world,  also  could  be  called  "the 
house  of  the  tomb"  {E-gigunu)  or  "the  house  of  ^  the 
nether  world.'  "  It  is  the  edifice  that  rises  over  the  Hades, 
quasi  forming  the  roof  beneath  which  the  departed  souls 
reside.  It  was  therefore  only  natural  that  the  earliest  in- 
habitants should  bury  their  dead  around  the  base  of  the 
ziggurrat  of  Nippur  to  a  depth  of  thirty  to  forty  feet,  so 
that  the  latter  appears  to  us  almost  like  a  huge  sepulchral 
monument  erected  over  the  tombs  of  the  ancient  Sumerians 
who  rest  in  its  shadow.  Rising  out  of  the  midst  of  tombs, 
as  it  did,  the  stage-tower  of  Bel  even  literally  may  be  called 

^   Sargon,  Khorsabad,  155,^^7.    Comp.  Jensen, /.  c,  pp.   203,  231,  seqq. 
-  Comp.    A.    Jeremias,     Die    Babylonisch-Assyrischeti  Forstellu?igen  vom 
Lebe?i  nach  dem  Tode,  Leipzig,  1887,  pp.  61,  seqq. 


466  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

a  "  house  of  the  tomb(s)."  In  view  of  what  has  just  been 
stated  in  the  briefest  way  possible,  it  will  not  surprise  us 
that  in  the  cuneiform  literature  Ekur  sometimes  is  used  as 
a  synonym  of  "  heaven,"  ^  and  sometimes  stands  in  paral- 
lelism  with  Gigunu  and  Aralu." 

The  tower  of  Bel  at  Nippur  appears  to  us  as  a  place  of 
residence  for  the  gods,  as  a  place  of  worship  for  man,  and  as 
a  place  of  rest  for  the  dead  —  a  grand  conception  for  a  sanc- 
tuary in  the  earliest  historical  period  of  Babvlonia,  which 
has  continued  even  to  the  present  time.  For  the  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  Christian  churches,  which  contain  tombs 
within  their  confines  or  are  surrounded  by  a  graveyard,  prac- 
tically express  the  same  idea.  As  to  a  certain  degree  most 
of  the  other  Babylonian  temples  were  modelled  more  or  less 
after  the  great  national  sanctuary  of  Bel  at  Nippur,  we  must 
expect,  <^  ^r/on,  that  excavations  at  El-Hibba,  Fara,  Larsa, 
Muqayyar,  and  other  pre-Sargonic  ruins,  will  likewise  dis- 
close extensive  cemeteries  around  x\\€\xziggurrats.  But  it  is 
interesting  to  observe  how  certain  religious  ideas  of  the  Se- 
mitic conquerors,  possiblv  in  connection  with  considerations 
similar  to  those  which  led  to  a  transfer  of  the  cemeteries  from 
the  environments  of  the  churches  to  districts  outside  the 
cities  in  our  own  days,  seem  finallv  to  have  brought  about 
a  radical  change  of  the  ancient  burial  customs  in  Babylonia. 
With  regard  to  Nippur,  this  change  can  be  traced  to  about 
the  period  of  Sargon  I,  after  whose  government  no  more 
burials  occur  in  the  sacred  precinct  of  Ekur.  As  remarked 
above,  there  are  comparativelv  few  among  the  2500  post- 
Sargonic  tombs  thus  far  examined  at  Nuffar  that  can  be 
with  certainty  assigned  to  the  long  interval  between  Sar- 
gon I  and  the  Seleucidan  occupation.  Nearly  all  those 
reported  by  Peters  and  Haynes  as  being  true  Babylonian 
are  Parthian,  Sassanian,  and   Arabic.^      In   fact  we   do   not 

^   Comp.  ii  R.  54,  no.  4.  ^  Comp.  iv  R.  24,  3-8  ;    2",  26,  27  a. 

^  Comp,  pp.   154,  seq.,  233,  note  3,  above. 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      467 

know  yet  how  the   Semitic  inhabitants  of  ancient  Nippur 
generally  disposed  of  their  dead. 

From  the  difficult  passage  ^  preceding  Gudea's  account  of 
his  restoration  of  Ningirsu's  temple  at  Lagash,  I  am  in- 
clined to  infer  that  originally  a  vast  fire-necropolis  sur- 
rounded the  sanctuary  of  Tello  also,  and  that  Gudea  did  the 
same  for  Shir-pur-la  as  Sargon  I  (or  some  other  monarch 
of  that  general  period)  had  done  for  Nippur.  He  stopped 
cremating  and  burying  the  dead  in  the  environments  of  the 
temple  of  Ningirsu,  and  levelled  the  ground  of  the  ancient 
cemetery  around  it,  with  due  regard  to  the  numerous  burial 
urns  and  coffins  previously  deposited  there.  In  other  words, 
"  he  cleaned  the  city  "  and  "  made  the  temple  of  Ningirsu  a 
pure  place  like  Eridu,"  the  sacred  city  of  Ea,  where,  appa- 
rently, in  the  earliest  days,  burials  were  not  allowed.  From 
the  same  inscription  we  learn  another  important  fact.  Gudea 
states  expressly,  that  "  he  restored  Eninnu-imgig[gu)barbara 
[Ningirsu's  temple]  and  constructed  his  [/.  e.  the  god's] 
beloved  tomb  (^/g-«««)  of  cedar  wood  in  it."  ^  It  cannot  be 
ascertained  precisely  where  the  god's  funeral  chapel  was, 
in  the  extensive  household  ^  provided  for  him  by  Gudea. 
From  another  passage  (Gudea,  Statue  D,  ii,  7-iii,  i),  how- 
ever, it  would  seem  that  it  formed  part  of  the  temple  proper, 
which  stood  at  the  side**  of  the  ziggurrat,  while  the  room  on 
the  summit  of  the  stage-tower  (called  Epa)  was  the  one 
chamber  above  all  others  in  which  Ningirsu  and  his  con- 
sort, Bau,  were  supposed  to  reside,  and  where,  accordingly, 

^  Statue  B,  iii,  i  2-v,  i  1 . 

'■^  Comp.  Gudea,  Statue  B,  v,   15-19  ;   Statue  D,  ii,  7-iii,  i. 

^  Comp.  Thureau-Dangin's  translation  and  brief  treatment  of  Gudea's  two 
large  cylinders  (A  and  B)  in  Comptes  Rendus,  1901,  pp.  i  12  scqq.  {^Le  songe 
ae  Gudea,  Cyl.  A),  Revue  d'histoire  et  de  literature  religieuses,  vol.  vi 
(1901),  no.  6,  pp.  481,  seqq.  {^La  famille  et  la  cour  d^un  dieu  chaldeen, 
Cyl.  B.),  and  Zeitschrift  fur  Assyriologie,  vol.  xvi  (1902),  pp.  344, 
seqq.   {he  eylifidre  A  de  Gudea'). 

^  Comp.  pp.  469,  seqq.,  below. 


468  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

"the  wedding  presents  of  Bau "  were  deposited.  Here, 
then,  for  the  first  time,  we  meet  with  the  idea  that  a  Baby- 
lonian god  has  his  tomb.  Startling  as  this  statement  may 
seem  at  first,  it  is  in  entire  accord  with  the  character  of  the 
principal  god  of  Lagash,  as  a  god  of  vegetation  and  as  a  sun- 
god.  For  Ningirsu,  "  the  powerful  champion"  and  "the 
beloved  son "  of  En-lil  of  Nippur,^  originally  the  god 
of  agriculture,  was  later  identified  with  Ninib,  "the  son  of 
Ekur"  the  god  of  the  rising  sun,  "  who  holds  the  link  of 
heaven  and  earth  ^  and  governs  everything."  ^  According 
to  the  Babylonian  conception,  he  suffers  death  in  the  same 
way  as  Tammuz-*  (Ez.  8  :  14),  the  god  of  the  spring  vege- 
tation and  of  the  lower  regions,  with  whom  Ningirsu  is 
practically  identical;^  or  as  Shamash,  the  sun-god  himself, 
who  descends  into  the  apsu,  the  terrestrial  and  subterranean 
ocean,  everv  evening,  and  rises  out  of  it  again  in  the  morn- 
ing;  who  in  the  spring  of  every  year  commences  his  course 
with  vouthful  vigor,  but  gradually  grows  weaker  and  weaker 
until  he  dies  during  the  winter.  The  sun  dwelling  in  "  the 
nether  world  "  for  half  a  year,  the  sun-god  himself  naturally 
is  considered  as  dead  during  this  period,''  and  Shamash  con- 
sequently has  his  tomb  in  Larsa,  and  Ai,  his  wife,  at  Sip- 
para,'  as  Ningirsu  in  Lagash.     More  than  this,  the  ziggurrat 

1  Comp.  Gudea,  Cyl.  A,  ii,  12,  where  it  is  even  said  that  "Ningirsu 
is  lord  or  prince  (nirgal)  at  Nippur." 

2  See  i  R.  29,  3,  seq.,  markas  shame  u  irsiti,  the  Assyrian  translation  ot 
the  Sumerian  Duranki,  which,  as  we  saw  above,  was  the  name  of  the  zig- 
gurrat of  Ekur. 

^  Comp.  Jensen,  Kosmologie,  Index. 

■*  Who  dies  in  the  month  sacred  to  him. 

^  Comp.  Jensen,  /.  c,  pp.   197,    seqq. 

^  Comp.  Winckler,  Arabhch-Semitisch-Orientalisch  in  Mitteilungefi  der 
Forderasiatischen  Gesellschaft,'Qer\m,  1901,  no.  5,  pp.  93,  seqq. 

■^  Comp.  Scheil,  Code  des  Lois  de  Hammurabi  (D.  Morgan's  Memoires, 
vol.  iv)  Paris,  1902,  col.  ii,  26-28, — a  passage  which  I  owe  to  Hommel, 
I  not  vet  having  seen  the  book  recently  published. 


DURING  Wrn  CENTURY  :  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA     469 

of  Larsa  itself  is  Shamash's  tomb.  For  on  a  barrel  cylinder 
from  the  temple  of  Shamash  and  Ai  at  Larsa,  Nabonidos  un- 
mistakably calls  the  god's  stage-tower  "  his  lofty  tomb."  ^ 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  follows  (i)  that  the  Baby- 
lonians themselves  associated  the  idea  of  "  tomb  "  closely 
with  their  ziggurrats,  and  (2)  that  the  inscriptions  not  only 
know  of  tombs  of  certain  deities  (of  light)  in  general,  but  in 
one  case  at  least  directly  call  the  ziggurrat  of  a  god  "  his 
sepulchre."  As  Marduk,  the  supreme  god  of  Babylon, 
likewise  is  a  sun-god,  namely,  the  god  of  the  early  sun  of 
the  day  (morning)  and  of  the  year  (spring),^  we  have  no 
reason  to  doubt  any  longer  that  the  conception  of  the  clas- 
sical writers  concerning  Etemenanki,  the  stage-tower  of  Mar- 
duk, as  "  the  sepulchre  of  Bel,"  is  correct,  and  goes  back 
to  trustworthy  original  sources.^ 

4.  The  excavations  conducted  along  the  southeast  enclos- 
ing wall  of  the  ziggurrat  established  the  important  fact 
that  the  stage-tower  did  not  occupy  the  central  part  of  the 
temple  court,  and  that  the  ascent  to  the  high-towering  ter- 
race and  the  entrance  gate  of  the  enclosing  wall  did  not  lie 
opposite  each  other.  Upon  entering  the  sacred  precincts 
one  was  compelled  to  turn  westward  in  order  to  reach 
the  former.  It  became,  therefore,  very  probable  that  the 
remains  of  a  second  important  structure  were  hidden 
below  the  rubbish  accumulated  at  the  northeast  side  of  the 
ziggurrat.  In  order  to  ascertain  this,  we  proceeded  with 
our  excavations  from  the  east  corner  of  the  temple  court 

1  A  passage  generally  misunderstood  by  the  translators.  The  text  was 
published  and  first  translated  by  Bezold  in  the  *'  Proceedings  of  the  Society  of 
Biblical  Archeology,"  1889.  Comp.  col.  ii,  \6  :  zi-ku-ra-ti  gi-gu-na-a- 
shu  si-i-ri. 

2  Comp.  Jensen,  Kosrnologie,  pp.  87,  seqq.  A  somewhat  different  view 
of  the  same  scholar  is  found  in  Schrader's  K.  B.,  vol.  vi,  p.  562. 

3  Comp.  Lehmann  in  Wochenschrift  fur  klassische  Philologie,  1900,  p. 
962,  note  I,  and  Beitr'age  zur  alten  Geschichte,  vol.  i,  p.  276,  note  i. 
Also  Zimmern,  K.  A.  T.^,  p.  371. 


470 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


Ground  plan  of  Ekur,  Temple  of  Bel  at  Nippur 
Restored  and  designed  by  Hilprecht,  draivn  by  Fisher 

A.  Inner  Court :      I.    Ziggurrat.      2.    House  of  Bel.     j.    Front  and  rear  gates.      4 
and  J.    Storage  -vaults.     6  and  7.     Water  conduits  draining  the  -ziggurrat.     8.    Shal- 

loiv  basin  forming  the  junction  of  the  ivatercourses  at  the  rear. 

B.  Outer  Court :      /.    Small    Temple  of  Bel.      2   and  j>.    Exca-vated  portions  of  the 

enclosing  ivalls. 

exca-vated, restored  ivalls. 


DURING  19TJI  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      471 

northward,  until  we  came  upon  a  wall  of  baked  bricks 
which  ran  parallel  to  the  southeast  enclosing  wall.  We  fol- 
lowed it  for  a  considerable  distance  towards  the  southwest, 
when  suddenly  it  turned  off  at  a  right  angle  in  a  north- 
west direction,  continuing  its  course  for  157^^  feet,  nearly- 
parallel  with  the  northeast  fa9ade  of  the  ziggurrat,  and  at 
a  distance  of  nearly  sixteen  feet  from  it.  When  we  had 
reached  a  point  a  little  beyond  the  north  corner  of  the 
stage-tower,  it  again  turned  off  at  a  right  angle  to  the  east. 
We  traced  it  for  seventy-one  feet  in  this  direction  by  means 
of  a  tunnel,  without,  however,  being  able  to  follow  it  to  the 
end. 

The  excavated  portions  sufficed  to  determine  that  the 
wall  enclosed  a  space  152  feet  long  and  about  115  feet 
wide,  /.  <?.,  an  area  of  17,480  square  feet.  The  prominent 
position  which  the  structure  occupied  at  the  side  of  the 
stage-tower,  the  fact  that  it  was  built  of  burned  bricks 
(laid  in  clay  mortar),  and  the  circumstance  that,  with  the 
exception  of  the  entire  southeast  side  and  the  adjoining 
part  of  the  southwest  face,  the  wall  was  panelled  in  the 
same  way  as  the  corresponding  sides  of  the  ziggurra/, 
indicated  clearly  that  it  was  not  a  mere  enclosing  wall, 
but  the  facing  of  a  large  house.  As  it  had  served  as 
a  quarry  for  later  generations,  it  was  unfortunately  re- 
duced considerably  in  height.  At  some  places  not  more 
than  one  or  two  courses  of  bricks  had  been  left,  while  at 
others  there  were  as  many  as  a  score.  With  the  limited 
time  then  at  my  disposal  it  was  impossible  to  examine 
and  to  remove  the  mass  of  debris  covering  the  building 
as  carefully  as  it  ought  to  be  done.  I  therefore  decided 
not  to  ruin  this  important  section  of  the  temple  area 
by  adopting  the  methods  of  my  predecessors,  but  to  leave 
its  interior  as  far  as  possible  untouched,  and  to  confine  my- 
self to  an  exploration  of  its  exposed  edges.  We  were  thus 
enabled  to  gather  the  following  details,     a.  The  facing  wall 


472  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

varied  in  thickness  from  a  little  over  3  to  about  5^  feet. 
^.  A  number  of  unbaked  brick  walls  ran  at  right  angles  to 
the  facing  wall,  and  with  it  constituted  a  number  of  larger 
and  smaller  rooms,  c.  The  building  had  two  entrances  in 
its  longer  southwest  side.  The  one  near  the  south  corner, 
being  the  principal  one,  was  10^ 2  feet  wide,  while  that  near 
the  north  corner  measured  only  about  half  that  width. 
d.  As  the  visible  part  of  this  large  house  seemed  to  rest  on 
the  same  level  as  the  pavement  of  Kadashman-Turgu  and 
was  completely  covered  by  the  pavement  of  Ashurbanapal, 
naturally  I  assumed  that  it  had  been  restored  for  the  last 
time  by  a  member  of  the  Cassite  dynasty.  The  correctness 
of  this  theorv  was  proved  bv  an  inscription  taken  from  its 
walls.  Among  the  various  bricks  examined,  one  of  them 
(discovered  in  situ)  bore  a  brief  legend  on  one  of  its  edges, 
from  which  we  learned  that  "  Shagarakti-Shuriash  (about  1 3  50 
B.  c),  king  of  Babylon,  prefect  {sag-ush)  of  the  house  of 
Bel,"  was  one  of  the  rulers  who  devoted  his  time  and  inter- 
est to  this  remarkable  building,  e.  Immediately  beneath 
the  southwest  wall  of  the  Cassite  edifice  are  fragments  of 
an  earlier  wall  which  ran  somewhat  nearer  to  the  northeast 
face  of  the  ziggurrat. 

What  was  the  original  purpose  of  this  extensive  struc- 
ture? To  judge  from  its  mere  size  and  conspicuous  posi- 
tion in  connection  with  the  characteristic  inscription  just 
mentioned,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  represents  the 
"  house  of  Bel  "  itself,  the  palace  in  which  the  household 
of  the  god  and  his  consort  was  established,  where  sacrifices 
were  offered  and  the  most  valuable  votive  offerings  of  the 
greatest  Babvlonian  monarchs  deposited.  In  other  words, 
it  was  the  famous  temple  of  Bel,  which,  together  with  the 
stage-tower,  formed  an  organic  whole  enclosed  by  a  com- 
mon wall,  and  was  generally  known  under  the  name  of 
Ekur,  "  House  of  the  Mountain."  This  divine  palace 
stood  "  at   the    side  of  the  ziggurraf  "    of  Nippur,    pre- 


DURING  lOTH   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      473 

cisely  where,  on  the  basis  of  Rassam's  excavations  at 
Borsippa  and  Sippara,  and  according  to  numerous  indica- 
tions in  the  building  inscriptions  of  Babylonian  temples/  1 
had  expected  to  find  it. 

My  conclusions  with  regard  to  the  importance  and  nature 
of  this  structure  were  fully  confirmed  by  the  discoveries 
made  in  its  immediate  neighborhood.  Apart  from  numer- 
ous fragments  of  stone  vases,  as  a  rule  inscribed  with  the 
names  of  pre-Sargonic  kings  familiar  to  us  from  the  results 
of  the  former  campaigns,  we  unearthed  several  inter- 
esting antiquities  in  a  far  better  state  of  preservation  than 
the  average  relic  previously  excavated  in  the  court  of  the 
temple.  Their  number  increased  as  we  began  to  approach 
the  large  edifice  described.  Among  the  objects  of  art  thus 
obtained  I  mention  the  leg  of  a  large  black  statue  from  the 
level  of  Ur-Gur,  the  head  of  a  small  marble  statue  covered 
with  a  turban,  like  those  of  the  time  of  Gudea  found  at 
Tello,  and  two  small  headless  statues  of  the  same  material 
but  considerably  older.  Each  of  the  latter  bore  a  brief 
votive  inscription  of  four  lines.  They  came  from  the  same 
stratum  that  produced  the  large  mass  of  broken  antiquities 
gathered  by  the  second  and  third  expeditions.  Immedi- 
ately below  it  was  the  section  of  a  pavement  which  con- 
sisted of  stones  and  pieces  of  baked  brick  mixed  and  laid  in 
bitumen.  When  examined  more  closely  it  was  found  to 
contain  three  fragments  of  a  large  inscribed  slab  in  lime- 
stone once  presented  to  the  temple  of  Bel  by  a  "  king  of 
Shumer  and  Akkad."  Not  far  from  this  pavement  there 
was  a  large  heavy  vase  in  dolerite.  It  stood  upright,  was 
over  2  feet  high,  had  a  diameter  of  nearly  1 14  feet,  and 
bore  the  following    inscription  :   "  To  Bel,  the  king  of  the 

1  For  the  present  comp.  Nabonidos'  barrel  cylinder  from  Larsa  (published 
by  Bezold  in  the  "Proceedings  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology," 
London,  1889),  vol.  iii,  13,  sf^.  :  pa-pa-khi  shu-ba-at  i-lu-ti-shu-un  sir- 
tim  sha  i-te-e  zi-qu-ra-tim  ri-tu-u  te-me-en-shu. 


474  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

gods,  for  the  house  [es/i]  of  Nippur  [and,  or  namely]  Dt^r- 
anki,  Gudea,  palesi  of  Lagash,  has  presented  the  long  boat 
(/.  e.y  a  turrada)  of  Ekur  for  [the  preservation  of]  his  life." 

It  soon  became  evident  that  the  house  of  Bel  at  the  side 
of  the  ziggiirrat  must  have  existed  as  early  as  the  time  of 
Sargon  I  and  Naram-Sin.  A  few  brick  stamps  of  the  latter, 
and  a  door-socket  and  many  brick  stamps  of  the  former 
were  discovered  slightly  above  their  well-known  pavement. 
Soon  afterwards  the  workmen  unearthed  a  small  piece  of 
spirited  sculpture  (exhibiting  the  larger  part  of  an  incised 
quadruped),  which  doubtless  belongs  to  the  fourth  mil- 
lennium, and  a  round  marble  slab  over  i  feet  in  diameter 
and  nearly  3  inches  thick,  which  contained  the  name  of 
"  Naram-Sin,  king  of  Agade,  king  of  the  four  regions 
of  the  world,"  accompanied  by  the  somewhat  effaced  name 
of  a  contemporaneous  "priest  of  Bel,  thy  servant." 

Even  the  pre-Sargonic  period  was  represented  by  several 
fairly  well  preserved  objects.  We  refer  briefly  to  the  frag- 
ment of  a  perforated  votive  tablet  in  limestone  showing  a 
sacrificial  scene  with  Nin-lil,  or  Beltis,^  in  the  centre.  The 
goddess,  accompanied  by  a  bird,  apparently  sacred  to  her," 
is  seated  on  a  low  chair  and  holds  a  pointed  cup  in  her 
right  hand.  A  burning  altar  (which  became  the  regular 
ideogram  for  "  fire  "  in  Assyrian)  and  a  lighted  candlestick 
stand  in  front  of  Beltis,  while  behind  her  a  priest,  remark- 
able for  the  long  hair  of  his  beard  and  the  back  of  his  head, 
leads  a  shaved  worshipper,  carrying  a  young  goat  on  his 
right  arm,  before  the  goddess.  Among  the  other  antiqui- 
ties found  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Bel's  house, 
I   mention    a  small  carving    in    mother-of-pearl   (a   warrior 

1  If  it  were  Bel,  he  would  be  represented  with  a  beard,  according  to  the 
general  custom  observed.  The  garment  and  the  peculiar  hair-dress  of  the 
deity  Hkewise  favor  my  interpretation. 

2  Comp.  the  raven  of  Ningirsu  (p.  230,  note  i,  above),  the  raven  of 
Woden,  the  eagle  of  Jupiter,  the  peacock  of  Juno,  the  owl  of  Athene,  etc. 


DURING  19™   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      475 

with  drawn  bow) ;  a  piece  of  lapis  lazuli  with  a  human 
head  in  low  relief;  another  round  stone  slab  dedicated  to 
En-lil  bv  King  Lugalkigubnidudu  ;  a  model  in  limestone 
for  making  plano-convex  bricks  ;  about  forty  fragments 
of  clay  bearing  impressions  of  archaic  seal  cylinders  ;  and 
more  than  one  hundred  inscribed  clay  tablets  taken  from 
below  the  level  of  Naram-Sin.  With  regard  to  several 
other  antiquities  found   in   the  strata  immediately  beneath 


Pre-Sargonic  Votive  Tablet  in  Limestone,  Sacrificial  Scene 

it  —  as,  e.g.,  a  quantity  of  large  beads  in  crystal  (quartz), 
a  hollow  cone  of  silver,  a  vase  of  jewelry  containing  rings 
and  a  well  preserved  chain  in  the  same  metal,  several  ex- 
cellently fashioned  nails,  scrapers,  knives,  a  saw,  and  many 
fragments  of  vessels,  all  in  copper  —  it  must  remain  doubt- 
ful whether  they  belonged  to  "the  house  of  Bel"  or,  as 
seems  more  probable  to  the  present  writer,  in  part  at 
least  were  originally  deposited  in  the  numerous  ash-graves 
which  begin  to  appear  directly  below  the  pavement  of  the 
Sargon  dynasty. 

Several  fragments  of  small  pavements  were  discovered 
slightly  above  that  of  Naram-Sin  in  the  east  section  of  the 
temple    court    immediately    before   the    sanctuary    of   Bel. 


476  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

They  had  been  laid  by  unknown  persons  prior  to  the 
time  of  Ur-Gur,  One  of  these  sections  contained  many 
inscribed  bricks  with  the  short  legend  :  "  Lugalsurzu, 
patesi  of  Nippur,  priest  of  Bel."  A  shallow  rectangular 
basin  built  of  burned  bricks  and  coated  with  bitumen  on 
its  floor  and  sides,  an  open  conduit  leading  from  it  to  a 
neighboring  vertical  drain,  and  the  above-mentioned  stone 
vase  of  Gudea  indicate  that  it  was  probablv  reserved  for  the 
ablutions  of  the  priests,  tor  cleansing  the  sacred  vessels,  and 
other  functions  of  the  temple  service  for  which  water  was 
required.  It  is  possible  also  that  the  sheep,  goats  and 
other  sacrifices  to  be  offered  were  killed  there.  From  an 
inscribed  door-socket  of  Bur-Sin  of  Ur  previously  unearthed 
in  the  eastern  half  of  the  temple  court,^  it  can  also  be 
inferred  that  a  store-room  called  "  the  house  for  honey, 
cream  and  wine,  a  place  for  his  [Bel's]  sacrifices,"^  must 
have  existed  somewhere  within  the  temple  enclosure  not 
very  far  from   "  the  house  of  Bel." 

The  large  number  of  inscribed  and  sculptured  objects 
gathered  in  the  lower  strata  of  the  court  of  the  ziggurrat 
by  the  American  explorers  and  in  its  upper  ruins  centuries 
ago  by  the  later  inhabitants  of  ancient  Nippur,^  to  a  certain 
degree  enable  us  to  form  an  idea  of  the  elaborate  manner 
in  which  the  temple  of  Bel  was  equipped  and  embellished 
in  early  davs.  But  the  ruinous  state  of  its  walls  and  the 
very  fragmentary  condition  in  which  all  the  statues  and 
most  of  the  reliefs  and  vases  thus  far  have  been  discovered, 
indicate  what  in  all  probability  will  await  us  in   the  interior 

1  Comp.  Hilprecht,  "The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A, 
vol.  i,  part  i,  no.  2 1 . 

"^  On  the  use  and  significance  of  wine,  cream  and  honey  in  the  Babylonian 
cults,  comp.  Zimmern,  K.  A.  T.^,  p.  526. 

^  E.  g.,  all  the  fine  votive  objects  originally  deposited  by  the  Cassite  kings 
in  the  temple  of  Bel,  but  found  bv  Peters  in  the  box  of  a  jeweller  of  the 
Parthian  period  (pp.  335,  seq.,  above),  outside  of  the  temple  proper. 


DURING   lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      477 

of  the  sanctuary  itself.  A  methodical  exploration  of  the 
large  building  at  the  side  of  the  ziggurrat  will  doubtless 
result  in  the  unearthing  of  other  fragmentary  inscriptions 
and  important  objects  of  art,  but  its  principal  object  will 
have  to  be  the  restoration  of  the  ground-plan  of  Baby- 
lonia's great  national  sanctuary  at  the  middle  of  the  second 
pre-Christian  millennium. 

5.  Much  has  been  written  on  the  analogies  existing  be- 
tween Babylonian  and  Hebrew  temples,  and,  strange  to  say, 
even  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  trace  the  architectural 
features  of  the  temple  of  Solomon  to  Babylonian  sources, 
though  as  a  matter  of  fact  not  one  of  the  large  Babylonian 
temples  has  as  yet  been  excavated  thoroughly  enough  to 
enable  us  to  recognize  its  disposition  and  necessary  details. 
The  little  Parthian  palace  of  Nippur  on  the  west  side  of 
the  Chebar,  plainly  betraying  Greek  influence,  was  quoted 
as  a  pattern  "  of  the  architecture  of  Babylonia,'  and  the 
Parthian  fortress  lying  on  the  top  of  the  ruined  temple  of 
Bel  was  interpreted  as  "  afixjrding  us  for  the  first  time  a 
general  view  of  a  sacred  quarter  in  an  ancient  Babylonian 
city."  There  remains  little  of  Peters'  theories  concerning 
the  topography  of  ancient  Nippur  and  the  age  of  its  exca- 
vated ruins  that  will  stand  criticism.  We  can  therefore 
readily  imagine  to  what  incongruities  anv  comparison  resting 
on  his  so-called  interpretations  of  the  ruins  must  lead  us. 
It  will  be  wise  to  refrain  for  the  present  entirely  from  such 
untimely  speculations  until  the  characteristic  features  of  at 
least  one  of  Babvlonia's  most  prominent  sanctuaries  have 
been  established  satisfactorily  by  pick  and  spade. 

In  my  previous  sketch  I  have  endeavored  to  show,  on  the 
basis  of  my  own  excavations  and  researches  at  Nufi^ar,  that 
Ekur,  the  temple  of  Bel,  consisted  of  two  principal  build- 
ings, the  ziggurrat,  and  "  the  house  of  Bel  "  at  the  side 
of  it.  Both  were  surrounded  bv  a  common  wall  called 
Imgur-Marduk  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions.     It  may  rea- 


478  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

sonably  be  doubted  whether  the  average  pilgrim  visiting 
Nippur  was  ever  allowed  to  enter  this  most  holy  enclos- 
ure. The  question  then  arises  :  Was  there  no  other  place 
of  worship,  a  kind  of  outer  court,  to  which  every  pious 
Babylonian  who  desired  to  pay  homage  to  "  the  father  of 
the  gods,"  had  free  access  ? 

In  1890  Peters  fortunately  came  upon  the  remains  of 
a  building  in  the  lower  mounds  situated  to  the  southeast 
of  Bint  el-Amir.  He  found  that  most  of  its  bricks  were 
stamped  upon  their  edges,  one  to  three  times,  with  a  brief 
legend,  and  discovered  two  door-sockets  m  situ,  from  which 
we  learned  that  the  little  edifice  of  two  rooms  was  a  tem- 
ple called  Kishaggulla-Bur-Siriy  "  House  of  the  delight  of 
Bur-Sin,"^  erected  in  honor  of  Bel  by  Bur-Sin  of  Ur,  who 
reigned  about  2550  b.  c.  (comp.  pp.  336,  seq.,  above).  Frag- 
ments of  sculptures  scattered  in  the  debris  around  it  testified 
to  the  great  esteem  in  which  the  chapel  had  been  held  by  the 
ancient  worshippers.  From  the  mere  fact  that  it  stood  in 
the  shadow  of  Ekur,  directly  opposite  the  ascent  of  the 
stage-tower,  towards  which  it  faced,  I  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusion that  it  must  have  been  included  in  the  precincts 
of  the  temple,  and  that  future  excavations  carried  on  in  its 
neighborhood  would  show  that  the  complex  of  the  great 
national  sanctuarv  in  all  probability  extended  much  farther 
to  the  south  than,  on  the  basis  of  Peters'  statements,  we  were 
entitled  to  assume.  When  therefore,  in  1899,  I  went  a 
second  time  to  the  ruins,  I  was  in  hope  of  finding  some 
clue  as  to  the  precise  relation  in  which  this  shrine  stood 
to  the  principal  enclosure.  As  the  enormous  dump-heaps 
raised  on  that  important  mound  by  my  predecessors  again 
interfered  seriously  with  the  work  of  the  expedition,  there 

^  Comp.  Hilprecht,  "The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A, 
vol.  i,  part  i,  no.  20,  II.  15,  seq.  The  two  signs  shag-gul  (heart  +  joy, 
Herzensfreude),  must  be  an  ideogram  with  a  meaning  Hke  "delight,  cheer- 
fulness. ' ' 


DURING   191"  CENTURY :   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      479 

remained  nothing  else  to  be  done  but  to  try  to  solve  the 
problem  in  connection  with  our  excavations  along  the  south- 
east enclosing  wall  of  the  court  of  the  ziggurrat  as  far  as 
this  was  possible.  The  attempt  was  crowned  with  a  fair 
amount  of  success  beyond  that  which  could  have  been  anti- 
cipated (comp,  the  zinctype,  p.  470). 

While  tracing  the  panelled  outer  face  of  the  last-men- 
tioned wall,  our  workmen  were  suddenly  stopped  in  their 
progress  both  at  the  eastern  and  southern  ends  of  the  long 
and  deep  trench  by  a  cross-wall  joining  the  former  at  a 
right  angle.  In  order  to  ascertain  the  course  and  nature 
of  these  two  walls  they  were  ordered  to  follow  them  for  a 
certain  distance  by  means  of  tunnels  cut  along  their  inner 
faces  at  about  the  level  of  Naram-Sin's  pavement.  These 
tunnels  revealed  the  existence  of  numerous  ash-graves  in 
the  lower  strata,  and  enabled  us  to  determine  that  the 
two  walls  were  constructed  of  the  same  unbaked  material 
and  adorned  with  the  same  kind  of  panels  as  the  southeast 
wall  of  the  temple  enclosure.  The  northeast  wall  was 
traced  forty-eight  feet  without  reaching  its  end,  when  the 
excavations  were  suspended  in  order  not  to  destroy  valu- 
able remains  of  constructions  which  might  have  been  built 
against  it.  For  the  same  reason  the  southwest  tunnel  was 
cut  less  deep,  especially  as  the  evidence  gained  from  it 
sufficed  to  confirm  the  results  obtained  from  the  other 
tunnel.  It  could  no  longer  be  doubted  that  a  second, 
somewhat  smaller  court,  in  which  Bur-Sin's  sanctuary  stood, 
adjoined  the  court  of  the  ziggurrat  on  the  side  of  its  princi- 
pal entrance.  This  outer  court  seems  to  have  extended  to 
the  edge  of  the  depression  which  represents  the  ancient  bed 
of  a  branch  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil.  An  opening  in  the  low 
narrow  ridge  running  along  its  northern  embankment,  and 
evidentlv  marking  the  remains  of  an  ancient  wall  later  occu- 
pied by  Parthian  houses,  indicates  the  site  of  the  gate  which 
once  gave  access  to  it. 
36 


480  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

These  are  all  the  positive  facts  that  could  be  gathered. 
At  least  two  years  will  be  required  to  remove  the  dump- 
heaps  completely  and  to  excavate  the  whole  mound  sys- 
tematicallv.  From  a  tablet  found  in  the  upper  strata  of 
the  temple  library,  I  learned  that  besides  Bel,  at  least 
twenty-four  other  deities  had  their  own  "  houses  "  in  the 
sacred  precincts  of  Nippur.  Where  have  we  to  look  for 
them  ?  The  absence  of  any  considerable  building  remains 
in  the  inner  court,  apart  from  those  described  above,  the 
existence  of  a  small  temple  of  Bel  in  the  outer  court,  and 
several  other  considerations,  lead  me  to  the  assumption  that 
in  all  probabilitv  they  were  grouped  around  Bel's  chapel 
in  the  enclosed  space  between  the  southeast  wall  of  the  zig- 
gurrat  and  the  eastern  branch  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil,  —  in  other 
words,  are  to  be  sought  for  in  the  outer  court  of  Ekur. 

6.  One  of  the  principal  tasks  of  the  latest  Philadelphia 
expedition  was  to  search  for  the  gates  and  to  determine  the 
probable  course  and  extent  of  the  walls  of  the  ancient  city. 
According  to  the  inscriptions,  Nippur  had  two  walls,  called 
Imgur-Marduk  ("  Merodach  was  favorable")  and  Ntmit- 
Marduk  ("  Stronghold^  of  Merodach  ").  The  former  was 
the  inner  wall  {duru)^  the  latter  the  outer  wall  or  rampart 
[shalkhu).  The  mere  fact  that  both  names  contain  as  an 
element  Marduk,  the  supreme  god  of  Babylon,  who,  in 
connection  with  the  rise  of  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon 
(about  2300  B.  c.)  gradually  took  the  place  of  Bel  of 
Nippur,  indicates  that  they  cannot  represent  the  earliest 
designations  of  the  two  walls.  This  inference  is  fully  con- 
firmed by  a  discovery  made  in  the  debris  near  the  eastern 
corner  of  the  court  of  the  ziggurrat.  In  clearing  that  sec- 
tion the  workmen  found  a  small  and  much-effaced  terra- 
cotta cone  of  the  same  form  as  that  of  Ashurbanapal  de- 
scribed above  (p.  461),  which  originally  must  have  been 
deposited  in  the  upper  part  of  the  temple  wall.  The  docu- 
^  Literally  "  Foundation,  establishment  of  Merodach." 


DURING   19'"  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      481 

ment,  inscribed  with  two  columns  of  old-Babylonian  writing 
(twenty-five  lines  each),  and  in  the  Semitic  dialect  of  the 
country,  conveys  to  us  the  information  that  Samsu-iluna, 
son  and  successor  of  Hammurabi,  restored  the  inner  wall 
of  Nippur  {duru).  We  thereby  obtain  new  evidence  that 
the  kings  of  the  first  dynasty  did  not  entirely  neglect  Bel's 
sanctuary,  though  their  apparent  reason  for  fortifying  the 
temple  was  less  religious  than  political.  Their  interest  in 
the  wall  of  Nippur  seems  to  be  closely  connected  with  their 
operations  against  the  city  of  (N)isin,  which  was  situated 
not  far  from  the  latter,^  and  which  subsequently  became  the 
stronghold  of  Rim-Sin  of  Larsa. 

As  the  greater  part  of  the  inscription  is  intelligible  and 
of  importance  for  our  question,  I  give  it  in  an  English 
translation.  "  Samsu-iluna,  the  powerful  king,  king  of 
Babylon,  king  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  world.  When 
Bel  had  granted  him  to  rule  the  four  quarters  of  the 
world  and  placed  their  reins  into  his  hand,  Samsu-iluna, 
the  shepherd  who  gladdens  the  heart  of  Marduk,  in  the 
sublime  power  which  the  great  gods  had  given  him, 
in  the  wisdom  of  Ea  ...  he  raised  the  wall  {duru)  of 
Bel,  which  structure  his  grandfather  [Sinmuballit]  had 
made  higher  than  before,  like  a  great  mountain,  surrounded 
it  with  marshy  ground  [apparam),  dug  '  the  Euphrates  of 
Nippur  '  [/'.  e.y  cleaned  and  deepened  the  river  Chebar  ; 
comp.  pp.  412  seq.'],  and  erected  the  dam  of  '  the  Eu- 
phrates of  Nippur'  along  it.  He  called  the  name  of 
that  wall  '  Link  of  the  lands  '  {Markas-matatim)^'  caused  the 

'  Sinmuballit' s  repairing  of  the  wall  of  Nippur,  which  we  also  learn  from 
Samsu-iluna' s  cone,  was  probably  mentioned  in  the  mutilated  passage  ot  the 
list  of  dates  ("  Bu.  91,  5-9,  284  "),  following  his  conquest  of  (N)isin. 
Accordingly  it  would  have  taken  place  in  one  of  his  last  three  years,  immedi- 
ately before  he  lost  (N)isin  and  Nippur  again  to  Rim-Sin  of  Larsa.  Comp. 
Scheil,  Code  des  Lois  de  Hammurabi :  Nippur,  Dtir-an  (p.  463,  above),  Ekur. 

^  I.  e.,  the  wall  which  unites  all  the  lands  (the  whole  world).  It  was 
thus  called,  because  the  title  shar  kibrat  arba'im,  "  king  of  the  four  quarters 


482  EXPLORATIOXS  IX   BIBLE  LAXDS 

population  of  Shumer  and  Akkad  to  dwell  in  a  peaceful 
habitation  .  .  .  [and]  made  the  name  of  Sinmuballit,  his 
grandfather,  famous  in  the  world." 

From  the  place  where  the  cone  was  discovered,  from  the 
designation  of  the  wall  as  iiur  Bel,  and  from  the  description 
of  the  king's  work  following,  it  may  be  inferred  with  cer- 
tainty that  Samsu-iluna  has  reference  to  the  temple  wall. 
This  result  agrees  with  the  fact  that  our  excavations  have 
furnished  evidence  to  the  effect  that  the  city  proper  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil  was  never  fortified  by  a 
wall,  to  say  nothing  of  two  walls.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  double  wall  which  surrounded  and  protected  the  sanc- 
tuary from  the  earliest  days  can  still  be  traced  without 
difficulty,  notwithstanding  the  radical  changes  which  took 
place  at  the  temple  complex  in  post-Babylonian  times. 
The  Markas-matati  of  Samsu-iluna  and  the  Imgur-Marduk 
of  the  later  period  must  therefore  designate  the  same  inner 
wall  enclosing  the  two  courts  of  the  sanctuary  and  separat- 
ing them  from  the  other  buildings  of  the  vast  complex 
which  constituted  the  sacred  precincts  of  Nippur.  The 
general  course  of  this  wall  was  indicated  through  the  bound- 
ary line  of  the  Parthian  fortress  lying  directly  over  it,  and 
besides  has  been  fixed  definitely  at  several  points  by  our 
excavations.  We  exposed  nearly  the  whole  southeast  wall 
of  the  inner  court,  disclosed  part  of  its  northwest  wall,  and 
traced  the  two  side-walls  of  the  outer  court  far  enough  to 
enable  us  to  reconstruct  the  general  outlines  of  the  temple 
enclosure. 

Aside  from  the  depression  in   the  unexcavated  southeast 
ridge ^    marking   the   boundary    of  the  outer   court,  which 

of  the  world,"  was  closely  connected  with  the  sanctuary  of  Nippur,  in 
which  Bel,  as  "the  king  of  the  world,"  appointed  his  human  representative 
on  earth  and  bestowed  the  significant  title  upon  him.  Comp.  Hilprecht, 
"The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.  i,  part  2,  pp.  56,  seq. 
(and  part  1,  pp.  24,  seq.~). 

^   Comp.  the  plan  of  the  ruins  on  p.   305. 


DURING   lO'n   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND    BABYLONIA      483 

doubtless  represents  the  principal  entrance  of  the  latter, 
two  gates  have  been  found  in  connection  with  our  explora- 
tions around  the  stage-tower,  the  large  southeast  one,  which 
connects  the  two  courts,  and  another  smaller  one,  which 
leads  from  the  rear  of  the  ziggurrat  into  the  large  open 
space  to  the  northwest  of  the  temple.  The  axis  of  the  rear 
gate,  which  is  nearly  seventeen  feet  distant  from  the  lower 
face  of  Imgarsag,  is  in  line  with  the  front  gate.  Though 
only  one  corner  of  the  former  has  as  yet  been  uncovered,  it 
suffices  to  show  that  its  construction  was  similar  to  the  one 
in  front  of  the  ziggurrat. 

The  southeast  wall,  which  contained  the  principal  gate  of 
the  temple,  exhibits  the  same  general  characteristic  features 
as  the  fragment  of  wall  from  the  time  of  Gudea,  which  De 
Sarzec  discovered  beneath  the  Seleucidan  palace  at  Tello, 
with  the  exception  that  the  wall  around  Ekur  was  con- 
structed entirely  of  unbaked  material,  while  the  much  less 
imposing  one  of  the  temple  of  Ningirsu  consisted  of  baked 
bricks.  To  judge  from  the  excavated  southeast  section, 
the  interior  face  of  the  wall  at  Nippur,  into  which  a  num- 
ber of  store-rooms  were  built,  was  plain  and  without  any 
ornamentation,  while  the  monotony  of  the  long  exterior  sur- 
face was  relieved  by  a  series  of  panels.^  On  an  average  these 
panels  measured  about  i6  feet  in  width,  and  were  separated 
from  each  other  by  shallow  buttresses  projecting  one  foot 
from  the  wall,  and  9  to  lo  feet  wide.  The  gate,  which  occu- 
pied nearly  the  centre  of  this  wall,  was  a  very  elaborate  affair, 
considering  that  its  plan  and  general  disposition,  similar  to 
that  of  the  city  gates  of  the  Assyrian  kings  discovered  at 
Khorsabad  and  Nineveh,  go  back  to  the  time  of  Sargon  of 
Agade.^     It  was  52  feet  long   and   nearly  as  wide,  and  was 

'  Comp.  the  zinctype,  p.  470,  above,  and  '*  Ekur,  the  Temple  of  Bel" 
(restored)  below. 

-  Traces  of  a  crude  brick  pavement  of  the  period  prior  to  Ur-Gur  were 
discovered  at  the    bottom   of  the  gate  walls.      In  the  same  proportion  as  the 


484  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

flanked  on  each  side   by  a  pair  of  tower-like  bastions,  still 
preserved  to  a  considerable  height.     They  projected  sixteen 
feet  towards  the  northwest  and  about  nine  feet  towards  the 
southeast.      Like    the  wall   itself,  which  was   26  feet   thick, 
including  the   storage  vaults  of  the  inner   court,  the  front 
faces  of  these  towers  were  panelled.      A  kind   of  vestibule 
marked    the    entrance    of   the    gate    on    both    sides.      By 
means  of  three  stepped  recesses  projecting  from  each  tower 
these  vestibules    (14  feet  wide)  narrowed    into  the  passage- 
way proper,  which  measured  only  6  feet  in  width.      In  the 
middle  of  the  gate  this  passage   opened  into  a  long  gallery, 
probably  serving  as  a  guard-room.     The  door  of  the  gate 
which  closed   the  opening  towards  the  outer  court  swung  in 
the  direction  of  the  eastern  section  of  this  gallery,  as  a  socket 
in  dolerite  imbedded  in  baked  bricks  allowed  us  to  infer. 
This  stone,  though  inscribed  with  the   common  legend  of 
Ur-Gur,  did  not  seem  to  lie  in  its   original  position,  but 
apparently  had  been  used  over  and  over,  the  last  time  by 
Ashurbanapal,  at  the  level  of  whose  pavement  it  was  found. 
The  remains  o^  Imgur-Marduk  were  deeply  hidden  below 
the  ruins  of  later  constructions.     As  regards  Nimit-Marduk^ 
the  outer  wall  of  the  temple,  we  find  the  case  somewhat  dif- 
ferent.    To  a  considerable  extent  the  course  of  the  ancient 
rampart  could  still  be  recognized  and  traced  through  a  series 
of  low  ridges  lying  on    the    northwest  and   northeast  (II) 
limits  of  Nuffar.    Seen  from  the  top  of  Bint  el-Amir,  they 
formed  two  almost  straight  lines  (more   or  less  interrupted 
by  gaps)  which  originally  must  have  met  at  an  obtuse  angle 
in  the  north  (comp.  the  plan  of  the  ruins,  p.  305).     In  the 
course  of  the  third  expedition  Haynes  had  driven  two  tun- 
floor  of  the  gate  was  raised  by  the  gradually  accumulating  dirt  and  debris,  the 
door-socket  was   carried   higher  and   higher,  so  that  Ashurbanapal' s  entrance 
lies  about  six  feet  above    that   of  Ur-Gur,  a  fact   in  entire   accord  with  the 
difference  of  altitude  observed  between  the  pavements  of  the  two  monarchs 
within  the  temple  enclosure. 


DURING  lOTK  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      485 

nels  through  the  northeastern  ridge  (near  III),  thereby  as- 
certaining that  both  Naram-Sin  and  Ur-Gur,  whose  bricks  at 
some  places  He  directly  upon  each  other,  had  done  work  on 
the  outer  wall.  His  deductions,  however,  with  regard  to  its 
original  size  and  construction,  turned  out  to  be  erroneous,  as 
accidentally  he  had  struck  a  kind  of  large  buttress,  through 
which  his  tunnels  ran  obliquely.  At  the  committee's  re- 
quest, he  had  resumed  his  excavation  there  in  the  fall  of 
1899,  in  order  to  search  for  the  northeast  city  gate,  the  orig- 
inal position  of  which  seemed  to  be  indicated  by  an  espe- 
cially large  gap  near  the  middle  of  the  ridge.  Soon  after 
my  arrival  at  the  ruins  in  1900,  I  placed  a  large  force,  divided 
into  a  number  of  small  gangs,  along  the  whole  line,  with 
the  intention  of  tracing  the  course  of  the  entire  wall.  The 
examination  of  the  northern  section  was  completed  within 
seven  weeks  ;  that  of  the  eastern  will  require  considerably 
more  time  and  work  to  obtain  a  full  insight  into  the  meaning 
of  the  many  fragmentary  walls  which  sometimes  run  along- 
side and  sometimes  above,  and  sometimes  overlap  each 
other.  Owing  to  the  heavy  mass  of  ruins,  particularly  of 
the  Parthian  period,  under  which  these  remains  are  buried, 
they  cannot  be  exposed  and  understood  fully  without  sub- 
jecting to  a  critical  examination  the  whole  group  of  mounds 
adjoining  them  in  the  direction  of  the  temple.  It  may  be 
safely  asserted  that  extensive  excavations  in  this  section  of 
the  ruins  will  yield  important  results.  For,  aside  from  very 
large  tablets  which  trial  trenches  brought  to  light,  we  have 
reason  to  believe  that  the  buildings  which  occupied  this  site 
stood  in  a  closer  relation  to  the  sanctuary,  in  all  probability 
representing  the  palace  of  the  patesis  of  Nippur  and  the 
houses  of  the  higher  class  of  priests  and  temple  officers 
serving  immediately  under  them. 

The  excavations  conducted  along  the  outer  face  of  Ni- 
mit-Marduk  yielded  several  interesting  objects.  At  the 
base  of  the  pre-Sargonic   and  Sargonic  walls  we  gathered  a 


486  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

large  quantity  of  baked  terra-cotta  Imlls,  about  i  %  to  i  ^^ 
inches  in  diameter,  and  a  few  small  stone  eggs.      Both  balls 
and  eggs   had  previously  been  classified  under  the  general 
title  of  playthings,  but  in  view  of  the  peculiar  place  where 
they  mostly  occurred,  this  explanation  can  no  longer  be  main- 
tained.    There  is  little  doubt  in  my  mind  but  that  they  are 
to  be  regarded  as  missiles  thrown  by  the  slingers  of  hostile 
armies  attacking  the  city.     As  stones  could  not  be  obtained 
in  the  alluvial  soil  of  Babylonia,  clay  was  turned  into  war 
material  as  it  served  many  other  purposes.    The  marble  eggs 
may  have  originally  belonged  to  foreign   invaders,  notably 
the  Elamites,  who  brought  them  from   their  mountainous 
districts,  or  they  were  thrown  by  certain  Babylonian  warriors 
of  one  of  the  petty  states  near  the  Arabian  desert  who  could 
afford  this  luxury.^     The  other  weapons  employed  in  the 
battles  around  the  walls  of  the  temple,  according  to  our  dis- 
coveries, were  arrows,  spears,  axes  and  clubs,  the  heads  of 
the  first-mentioned  three  weapons  being  made  of  copper; 
those  of  the  clubs  of  stone,  especially  porphyry  and  granite. 
In  one  case  we  came  upon  the  twisted  remains  of  a  quiver. 
The  wooden  parts  of  the  receptacle  had  decayed  long  ago, 
but  its  copper  fastenings,  consisting  of  a  round,  thin  plate 
with   two  corroded  arrowheads  attached  to  it,  a  narrow  cop- 
per strap  and  a  nail  of  the  same  metal,  were  still  preserved. 
The  excavations  tracing  the  base  of  A^i;;z//-Mrtr^///^  revealed 
also  some  of  the  means  to  which  the  besieged  inhabitants 
sometimes  resorted  in  order  to  protect  themselves  against 
attacks  from  without.      In  case  of  necessity  they  seized  any 
heavy  object  upon  which  they  could  lay  their  hands,  and 
hurled  it  down  upon  the  heads  of  the  storming  enemies,  as 
was  shown  bv  the  stone  weights,  mortars  in  dolerite,  broken 
statues  and  reliefs,  stone  pestles,  etc.,  unearthed  along  the 
outer  face  of  the  wall.      We  here  found  some  of  the  oldest 
fragments   of  sculptures  discovered  at  Nuffar,  e.  g.,  several 

^   Comp.  p.  242,  above. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      487 

portions  of  a  large  stelfe  in  limestone,  adorned  with  human 
figures,  similar  in  design  to  those  which  are  depicted  on  a 
small  bas-relief  from  Tello  representing  the  meeting  of  the 
two   chiefs/     It  was   natural  that  in  the  debris  which  had 


Pre-Sargonic  Bas-Relief  in  Limestone 

accumulated  on  both  sides  of  the  rampart  we  should  find 
many  broken  terra-cotta  figurines  of  gods  and  goddesses. 
And  it  was  entirely  in  accord  with  what  we  observed  in 
other  parts  of  the  mounds  that  here  and  there  in  the  slopes 
of  the  ruined  wall  late  Arabic  tombs  were  met  with.  But  it 
was  entirely  unexpected  to  find  that  the  pre-Sargonic  burials 
(ash-beds,  urns  and  drains),  which  at  low  levels  we  had  pre- 
viously traced  outside  of  the  inner  wall  of  the  post-Sargonic 
period,  extended  even  slightly  beyond  Nimit-Marduk  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  temple. 

As  the  northeast  section  of  the  outer  wall  confined  a  large 

1   Comp.  p.  250,  above. 


488  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

open  court,  there  was  no  difficulty  in  carefully  examining 
the  whole  structure  by  means  of  two  long  trenches  follow- 
ing its  course  on  either  side/  We  soon  found  that  origi- 
nally a  series  of  small  rooms  was  built  against  the  inner  face 
of  the  rampart.  Three  of  them  opened  into  a  long  corri- 
dor which  ran  along  the  wall  (No.  1 1).  Two,  exhibiting  no 
entrance  at  all,  seemed  to  have  served  as  store-rooms,  acces- 
sible onlv  from  above.  Some  could  be  identified  only  from 
insignificant  traces,  while  still  others  had  disappeared  so 
completely  that  their  former  existence  could  only  be  inferred 
from  certain  indications  in  the  soil.  To  the  northwest  of 
the  five  preserved  chambers  was  a  peculiar  receptacle  in  the 
shape  of  a  jar  made  of  three  different  materials  (No.  lo).  A 
round  terra-cotta  plate,  thickly  covered  with  bitumen,  repre- 
sented the  bottom.  The  lower  part  of  its  side  consisted  of 
bitumen,  while  the  upper  part  was  unbaked  clay  coated  inside 
and  outside  with  a  thin  layer  of  bitumen.  Evidently  this 
receptacle  had  been  a  kind  of  a  safe  inserted  in  the  floor  of 
a  room,  the  walls  of  which  had  decayed  long  ago.  The  man 
who  devised  this  unique  specimen  of  a  small  "cistern  "  had 
probably  intended  to  construct  it  entirely  of  bitumen  on  a 
foundation  of  terra-cotta,  but  finding  that  his  material  was 
not  sufficient,  he  substituted  clay,  and  used  only  as  much 
bitumen  as  was  absolutely  necessary  to  exclude  the  humid- 
ity from  the  interior  of  the  vessel.  The  relative  age  and 
purpose  of  this  vase  could  be  determined  by  the  aid  of 
seven  fragments  of  cuneiform  tablets  lying  within  it,  and 
also  of  a  few  others  picked  up  at  about  the  same  level  in 
the  loose  earth  of  the  neighborhood.  A  shopkeeper  of  some 
sort,  who  lived  at  the  time  of  the  dynasty  of  Ur  (about  2600 
B.  c),  had  kept  his  account  books  in  this  jar.  Similar  tablet 
jars  were  repeatedly  found  in  other  parts  of  the  ruins.^ 

^  Comp.  the  zinctype  illustrating  the  *♦  Northwestern  Section  of  the  North- 
eastern City  Wall,"  p.  498,  below.  The  numbers  placed  in  parenthesis 
above  refer  to  it. 

"  Comp.  my  remarks  in  connection  with  the  temple  library  below. 


DURING   lOiit  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      489 

Our  excavations  along  the  northwest  section  of  Nimit- 
Marduk  had  shown  that  in  the  first  half  of  the  third  millen- 
nium a  row  of  magazines,  booths,  and  closets  occupied  the 
space  along  the  inner  face  of  the  long  wall.  In  one  case  a 
room  had  been  built  even  into  the  latter.  Our  continued  ex- 
plorations in  that  neighborhood  confirmed  this  result  in  all 
particulars.  Near  the  northern  extremity  of  the  large  enclo- 
sure we  uncovered  a  small  fireplace  with  ashes  on  its  top  and 
around  its  base  (No.  9).  It  was  a  very  simple  affair,  being 
merely  a  hard  clay  platform  surrounded  by  a  row  of  burned 
bricks  set  on  edge.  A  much  more  elaborate  concern  (No.  8) 
was  discovered  a  little  to  the  north  of  it.  Our  Arabs  identi- 
fied it  at  once  as  a  large  oven  ot  the  same  tvpe  as  is  used 


^i-^*^.*-ife!^*  ■;.  .:   :— ., 

&^ 

^^^^^. 

il 

gM 

^L     >^^^^H 

1 

1 

^^Ee,  -     ^^^"^^BLt    =^'''«^» 

1 

1 

^g^a^^'-K^^^WI^^^^PI 

1 

1 

Old  Babylonian  Baking  Furnace.      About  2300  b. 


to-day  in  the  large  native  restaurants  of  Baghdad,  Hilla,  and 
other  places  of  the  lower  Euphrates  and  Tigris  valleys,  or 
employed  in  connection  with  the  burning  of  pottery.  This 
is  another  striking   illustration   of  the    tenacity  with  which 


490 


EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


ancient    Babylonian    customs    are    preserved    even    bv   the 
present  population  of 'Iraq  el-'Arabi. 

This  pecuHar  brick  structure,  which  combined  the  charac- 
teristic features  of  a  kiln  and  of  a  kitchen  furnace,  was  about 
13  feet  long,  a  little  over  7  feet  wide,  and  nearly  4  feet  high. 


Section  of  a  Babylonian  Baking  Furnace  in  Use  (Time  of  Abraham") 

It  was  built  against  Ur-Gur's  wall,  and  consisted  of  crude 
bricks,  which,  in  consequence  of  their  constant  exposure  to 
the  intense  heat,  had  completely  turned  red.  As  the  inter- 
esting fireplace  stood  on  a  somewhat  higher  level  than  the 
curious  tablet  jar  described  above  (p.  488),  it  probably  is 
not  quite  as  ancient,  and  must  be  ascribed  to  the  time  of 
the  kings  of  ( N  )isin  or  to  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon,  —  in 
round  numbers,  to  about  2400  or  2300  b.  c.  Its  upper  sur- 
face showed  a  kind  of  panelled  work,  while  there  was  an 
arched  opening  at  one  of  its  two  shorter  sides,  that  towards 
the  northwest.  The  outside  appearance  of  the  whole  struc- 
ture w^as  not  unlike  a  large  box  such  as  is  used  everywhere 
at  the  present  day  to  ship  birds  and  other  living  animals. 


DURING   lorn   CENTUBY:   ASSYRIA    AND  BABYLONIA      491 

i  Upon   closer  examination,  the  furnace  was    found  to   be 

f  composed  of  a  series  of  seven  (originally  nine)  arches  rising 
parallel  to  a  southeast  solid  wall  which  terminated  the  whole 
structure,  and  alternately  joined  to  one  another  by  frag- 
ments of  bricks  in  order  to  keep  the  single  arches  intact. 
The  vertical  flues  thereby  formed  descended  into  the  vaulted 
fire-box,  which  was  about  2^4  feet  wide,  nearly  as  high,  and 
ran  lengthwise  through  the  whole  kiln.  But  they  also  com- 
municated with  a  horizontal  flue  of  the  same  length  near 
the  top  of  the  structure  close  to  the  rampart.  The  accom- 
panying cross-section  of  the  restored  building,  drawn  by 
Fisher,  will  convey  a  tolerably  clear  idea  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  building  was  heated,  the  necessary  draft  obtained, 
and  the  smoke  discharged  from  the  interior.  The  draft  was 
regulated  by  means  of  tiles  placed  over  the  longitudinal  flue, 
or  removed  from  the  same. 

The  upper  surface  of  this  oven  now  appears  worn  off"  at 
the  edges  and  otherwise  damaged,  but  originally  it  was 
entirely  level.  The  pots  containing  the  food  to  be  cooked 
were  put  over  the  open  spaces  between  the  single  arches. 
Whenever  they  did  not  cover  the  entire  space  the  remain- 
ing openings  were  closed  by  bricks,  several  of  which  were 
found  in  situ.  In  case  pottery  was  to  be  burned,  all  the 
available  space  was  filled  with  differ- 
ent kinds  of  earthen  vessels.  Low 
dishes  were  piled  on  the  top  of  each 
other,  their  sticking  together  being 
prevented  by  small  terra-cotta  stilts 
of  preciselv  the  same  form  as  those 
used  in  the  china  manufactories  of 
Europe  and  America  to-dav.  They 
were  gathered  in  large  quantities  at  „  ,  ,    .     „..     ak   ^.  ^^     ^ 

D  &       T  Babylonian  Stilt.    About  2300  b.  c. 

various  parts  and  levels  of  the  ruins.^ 

Many  enamelled  dishes  of  the  Parthian  period  were  brought 

^  Comp.  p.   "^ij,  above. 


492 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


Stilt  used  in  Modern  China  Manufactories 
From  Trenton,  N.  y. 


to  light  which  exhibit  those  stilt-marks  very  plainly  inside 
and    outside.      In    order    to   save  tuel,    to   concentrate    the 

heat,  and  to  secure  an 
even  burning  of  the  pot- 
tery, the  structure  doubt- 
less was  roofed  over. 

After  this  brief  review 
of  the  principal  discover- 
ies made  in  connection 
with  our  tracing  the  inner 
face  of  the  great  enclos- 
ing wall,  we  turn  our  at- 
tention to  the  construc- 
tion of  the  wall  itself. 
The  long  narrow  ridge 
(II-III,  on  the  plan  of 
the  ruins,  p.  305),  which  conceals  the  remains  of  the  fre- 
quently repaired  rampart  to  the  north  of  the  temple,  varies 
considerablv  in  height.  At  some  places  it  stands  only  a  few 
feet  above  the  plain,  while  at  others  it  rises  to  more  than 
twenty  feet  above  the  same.  Its  average  height  may  be 
regarded  as  about  twelve  to  fifteen  feet.  The  comparative 
steepness  of  the  ridge,  the  absence  of  extensive  traces  of 
later  (post-Babylonian)  settlements  on  its  top,  and  the  note- 
worthy fact  that  the  excavations  at  the  highest  points  of  the 
ruined  structure  did  not  disclose  the  remains  of  specially  for- 
tified bastions  or  high  towers  at  these  places  would  indicate 
that  at  the  time  of  its  latest  restoration  Nimit-Marduk  can- 
not have  been  less  than  twenty-five  feet  high,  and  possibly 
was  somewhat  higher. 

The  question  arises  at  once,  whv  is  it  that  certain  parts  of 
the  ancient  rampart  are  preserved  almost  in  their  original 
height,  while  others  have  been  reduced  considerably,  and  still 
other  large  sections  of  the  northwest,  northeast  and  south- 
east walls  have  disappeared  completely.     It  is  not  difficult 


DURING  lOTJi  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      493 

to  give  a  correct  answer.  A  careful  examination  of  the  large 
adobes  which  characterize  all  the  true  Parthian  buildings  at 
Nippur  revealed  the  fact  that  they  were  made  of  clay  previ- 
ously worked.  It  is  generally  known  among  the  present  in- 
habitants of 'Iraq  el-'Arabi  that  the  clay  of  old  mud  houses 
refashioned  into  bricks  furnishes  a  much  more  tenacious  and 
lasting  building  material  than  the  clay  taken  directly  from 
the  soil.  We  have  ample  evidence  to  show  that  the  early 
Babylonian  builders  had  acquired  the  same  knowledge  by 
experience.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  therefore,  that  the 
enormous  mass  of  clav  required  for  the  construction  of 
the  huge  fortress  erected  on  the  temple  mound,  and  for  the 
extensive  Parthian  settlements  on  the  site  of  the  library,  on 
the  mounds  to  the  east  of  the  temple,  and  on  the  west  side 
of  the  Chebar,  was  principally  obtained  from  the  abandoned 
outer  walls  of  the  ancient  city.  This  theory  was  fully  cor- 
roborated by  our  excavations  in  the  wide  gap  of  the  north- 
east wall,  marked  III  on  the  plan  of  the  ruins  (p.  305). 
While  searching  there  for  the  possible  remains  of  one  of 
the  former  city  gates,  we  came  upon  a  very  large  hollow  or 
depression  in  the  ground  filled  with  mud  washings  and  drift 
sand  from  the  desert.  It  proved  to  be  one  of  the  clay  beds 
worked  by  the  brick-makers  of  the  post-Babylonian  period, 
who,  after  having  torn  down  a  section  of  about  360  feet 
from  the  old  rampart,  penetrated  to  a  considerable  depth 
into  the  soil  below  and  around  it. 

In  descending  somewhat  deeper  into  the  ground  than  the 
Parthian  clav  diggers  before  us  had  done,  we  disclosed  the 
ruins  of  a  pre-Sargonic  gate,  or  more  exactlv,  part  of  its 
substructure  and  stepped  ascent.  It  lav  four  to  eight  feet 
below  the  present  level  of  the  plain,  which  at  this  point  is 
considerably  higher  than  elsewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  NufFar. 
The  structure,  as  it  now  stands,  is  entirely  isolated.  But 
while  excavating  we  observed  a  mass  of  worked  clay,  largely 
disintegrated  adobes,  and  a  number  of  bricks  of  Naram-Sin 


49-1  EXPLORATIOXS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

scattered  through  the  loose  earth  in  its  immediate  neighbor- 
hood. These,  with  certain  inferences  to  be  drawn  from  a 
fragment  of  the  same  king's  wall  about  175  feet  to  the 
northwest  of  it,  and  several  other  considerations,  lead  us 
to  the  conclusion  that  at  all  the  diiferent  periods  of  Nip- 
pur's varied  history  the  northeast  gate  of  the  citv  must  have 
been  situated  at  about  the  same  place.  Hence  it  follows  that 
Nlmit-Marduk  ran  in  the  form  of  a  great  bastion  or  bul- 
wark around  the  gate,  giving  to  it  additional  strength  and 
architectural  prominence. 

From  the  illustration  facing  this  page  we  can  recognize 
without  difficulty  that  the  original  gate  consisted  of  three 
divisions,  a  central  roadway  (i)  for  the  use  of  beasts  and 
vehicles,  and  two  elevated  passageways  {1  and  3)  for  the 
people.  There  have  remained  only  insignificant  traces  of 
the  main  division  and  of  the  left  sidewalk  —  practically 
nothing  bevond  a  few  courses  of  burned  bricks  sufficient  to 
determine  the  general  plan  and  disposition  of  the  gate,  while 
the  right  or  northwest  passageway  was  found  in  a  tolerably 
fair  state  of  preservation.  The  central  road  was  about  12 
feet  wide,  or  nearlv  three  times  as  wide  as  each  sidewalk. 
The  pavements,  steps,  and  supporting  walls  were  built  of 
that  primitive  tvpe  of  bricks  which  constitutes  one  of  the 
most  characteristic  features  of  the  pre-Sargonic  age.  These 
bricks,  however,  exhibiting,  as  they  do,  two  distinct  moulds, 
represent  two  different  periods.  This  becomes  evident  from 
the  fact  that  they  occur  separately  in  the  two  constructions 
of  the  right  passagewav  (5  and  6)  which  lie  above  each 
other,  and  most  assuredlv  were  built  with  a  considerable 
interval  of  time  between  them.  The  older  bricks  are  more 
rudelv  fashioned  than  the  later  ones,  and  only  occasionally 
show  a  thumb  impression.  At  the  same  time  they  are 
somewhat  less  in  length  and  width  and  more  emphatically 
convex  than  the  more  modern  bricks.^ 

1  The  average  dimensions  of  the  earlier  bricks  are  8)4  by  5)^  by  zy^ 
inches,  those  of  the  later  ones  i  i  by  j  y^  by  2  inches. 


37 


DURING  lOTir  CENTURY :   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      495 

The  foundation  of  this  once  doubtless  imposing  structure 
was  laid  five  to  six  feet  below  the  foot  of  the  central  divi- 
sion. It  consisted  of  stamped  earth  mixed  with  potsherds 
and  fragments  of  bricks.  In  order  to  prevent  the  waters  of 
the  moat/  which  ran  parallel  to  the  northeast  wall  of  the 
city,  from  gradually  washing  the  earth  away,  the  outer  edge 
of  this  road-bed  (4)  was  cased  with  large  rude  blocks  of 
gypsum  laid  in  bitumen  to  a  height  of  more  than  two  feet. 
The  main  road  leading  over  this  foundation  from  the  bridge 
of  the  moat  to  the  temple  enclosure  sloped  gradually  but 
perceptibly  upward  while  passing  through  the  gate.  It  was 
paved  with  the  later  kind  of  pre-Sargonic  bricks,  likewise 
laid  in  bitumen.  They  were  arranged  in  a  peculiar  manner, 
somewhat  similar  to  those  which  formed  the  walls  of  the 
arched  tunnel  in  the  lower  strata  of  the  ziggurrat  (comp.  p. 
400).  The  two  sidewalks  were  provided  with  low  balus- 
trades, about  one  foot  high.  They  were  elevated  above  the 
central  path  and  reached  by  a  flight  of  eight  steps,  the  top- 
most of  which  lay  six  feet  higher  than  the  road  reserved  for 
animals.  This  difi^erence  in  altitude  naturally  grew  less  as 
the  three  passageways  approached  the  end  of  the  gate,  where 
possibly  they  entered  the  sacred  precincts  at  the  same  level. 
It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  preserved  right  staircase 
already  exhibits  the  same  stepped  recesses  which  are  charac- 
teristic of  later   Babylonian  gates.      In  consequence  of  this 

^  Apart  from  the  peculiar  casing  of  the  foundation  of  the  road,  which  other- 
wise cannot  be  explained  satisfactorily,  the  former  existence  of  a  moat  follows 
with  certainty  from  another  fact.  We  discovered  a  number  of  drains  in  our 
excavations  along  the  wall,  which  emerged  from  the  rubbish  around  the 
temple,  passed  beneath  the  city  wall,  and  continued  their  sloping  course  a 
little  outside  the  latter  until  they  suddenly  terminated  abruptly  in  the  open 
plain.  It  is  very  evident  that  they  must  have  discharged  their  contents  into  an 
open  watercourse  or  ditch,  which  probably  branched  off  from  the  Chebar  near 
the  beginning  of  the  northwest  wall,  followed  .the  entire  course  of  Nimit- 
Marduk,  and  ran  back  into  the  great  canal  somewhere  to  the  south  ot  the 
sanctuary. 


496  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

peculiarity  the  horizontal  passageway  starting  at  the  head 
of  the  stair  is  about  half  a  foot  narrower  than  the  lowest 
step.  Another  remarkable  feature  of  this  pre-Sargonic 
ascent  is  to  be  seen  in  the  tapering  of  the  steps  with  regard 
to  their  depth,  every  higher  step  being  smaller  in  width  of 
tread  than  the  next  one  below/ 

x\part  from  certain  necessary  repairs  made  by  later  hands 
along  the  top  of  the  dwarf  walls  on  either  side  of  the  right 
passageway  and  at  the  edge  of  the  lower  steps,  the  entire 
body  of  this  elevated  sidewalk  was  built  exclusively  of  the 
smaller  kind  of  pre-Sargonic  bricks.  Its  inner  face  ad- 
joining the  central  road  had  a  very  distinct  batter  or  slope 
(easily  to  be  recognized  in  the  illustration  opposite  page 
494),  while  its  outer  face  was  perfectly  vertical.  It  would 
seem  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  cause  of  this  difference 
in  construction  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  inner  face  was 
exposed  to  view,  while  the  outer  face  was  built  against  the 
mud  bricks  of  the  city  wall.  As  the  present  length  of  the 
sidewalk,  which  on  the  whole  is  identical  with  what  it  origi- 
nally was,  is  a  little  over  2S  ^^^t,  the  great  bastion  of  the 
city  wall  through  which  the  road  passed  must  have  had 
approximately  the  same  thickness. 

The  three  divisions  of  the  earliest  gate  ran  in  a  straight 
line  from  the  moat  to  the  enclosure.  But  at  a  subsequent, 
though  still  pre-Sargonic  period,  a  remarkable  change  took 
place,  doubtless  in  connection  with  a  rebuilding  of  the  walls, 
and  a  slight  altering  of  their  course.  As  we  shall  see  later, 
this  assertion  can  be  proved  positively  with  regard  to  Naram- 

1  I  took  the  following  measurements  of  the  width  of  tread  of  the  different 
steps  constituting  the  lower  stair.  The  lowest  step  measured  39  cm.,  the 
second  33  cm.,  the  third  and  fourth  29  cm.,  the  fifth  25  cm.,  the  sixth  23 
cm.;  the  seventh,  again  being  deeper,  measured  37.5  cm.  A  similar  obser- 
vation was  made  with  regard  to  the  upper  stair.  The  lowest  step  measured 
37  cm.,  the  second  35  cm.,  the  third  33  cm.,  the  fourth  29  cm.,  the  fifth 
and  sixth  23  cm.,  the  seventh  22  cm. 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      497 

Sin's  line  of  fortifications,  which  ran  nearly  perpendicular  to 
the  axis  of  the  upper  flight  of  stairs.  This  second  staircase 
lies  directly  over  a  section  of  the  earlier  sidewalk,  which  it 
crossed  at  a  slight  angle.  It  started  at  a  distance  of  nearly 
fourteen  feet  from  the  upper  edge  of  the  lower  stair,  leading 
in  eight  or  nine  steps  to  another  corridor.  As  previously 
remarked,  this  later  structure  was  composed  solely  of  the 
larger  kind  of  pre-Sargonic  bricks.  The  time  which  elapsed 
between  the  erection  of  the  two  staircases  is  unknown.  How- 
ever, the  period  cannot  have  been  very  short ;  it  probably 
embraced  several  hundred  years,  for  the  second  elevated 
path  lies  three  and  a  half  feet  above  the  former.  Doubtless 
it  was  built  because  the  debris  accumulated  at  the  base  of 
the  wall  and  in  the  open  court  behind  it  had  grown  to  such 
a  height  as  to  necessitate  a  change  in  the  level  of  the  roado 
At  the  time  of  Naram-Sin  the  roadbed  again  must  have  been 
raised  considerably  ;  for  the  lowest  traces  of  his  ruined  walP 
are  four  and  a  half  feet  above  the  upper  pre-Sargonic  side- 
walk, while  those  of  Ur-Gur's  rampart,  which  followed  a 
slightly  different  course  from  that  of  Naram-Sin,  lie  even  six 
feet  higher.  From  this  circumstance  alone  it  follows  that 
Ur-Gurand  Naram-Sin  cannot  have  lived  in  close  proximity 
to  one  another,  as  was  asserted  by  Lehmann  and  others, 
who  endeavored  to  reduce  the  3200  years  quoted  by  Nabo- 
nidos  to  2200  years. 

A  thorough  examination  of  the  long  ridge  to  the  north- 
west of  the  pre-Sargonic  gate  (No.  6,  p.  498)  enabled  us  to 
form  a  tolerably  clear  idea  of  the  original  size  and  character 
of  Nimit-Marduk.  As  only  the  lower  parts  of  the  wall  are 
preserved,  the  details  which  we  ascertained  apply  exclusively 
to  the  structures  of  Naram-Sin  (No.  3)  and  Ur-Gur  (No.  i). 
Neither  earlier  nor  later  remains  could  be  determined  with 
certainty.     The  general  trend  of  the  ridge  is  from  northwest 

^  The  base  of  an  excellently  preserved  perpendicular  water-conduit  drain- 
ing the  wall  of  Naram-Sin. 


498 


EXPLOliATIONS  IN    BIBLE  LANDS 


I         I 


•  m'  I 


)V)\ 


\     7 


•4-i^^ 


Northwestern  Section  of 

the  Northeastern  City  Wall 

^V  Fisher 


to  southeast,  and  fairly  represents  the 
direction  of  Ur-Gur's  rampart.  Apart 
from  their  fragmentary  height,  the  exca- 
vated portions  are  in  almost  perfect  con- 
dition. Though  uninscribed,  the  crude 
bricks  of  which  they  are  composed  in 
size,  color,  and  texture  are  identical  with 
those  in  the  centre  of  the  ziggurrat,  and 
therefore  may  safely  be  ascribed  to  the 
great  royal  builder  from  Ur  (about  2700 
B.  c).  The  exposed  northwest  section  is 
a  little  over  750  feet  long  and  i^yi  feet 
thick.  Its  exterior  is  effectively  broken 
up  by  eighteen  ^  buttresses,  which  average 
in  width  eleven  feet,"  and  project  two  feet 
from  the  face  of  the  wall.  The  spaces  or 
panels  between  them,  as  a  rule,  measure, 
almost  thirty  feet.  The  inside  surface  of 
the  structure  is  not  nearly  so  well  pre- 
served as  the  exterior,  but  there  is  evi- 
dence that  buttresses  were  also  used  to 
some  extent,  similar  to  those  on  the  out- 
side. Both  faces  of  the  wall  were  covered 
with  a  thin  plaster  of  clay  which  protected 
the  sloping^  sides  against  storm  and  rain. 
The    highest    part    of   Ur-Gur's   ruined 

1  We  found  only  seventeen,  but  the  eighteenth  can 
be  restored  with  certainty.  It  stood  in  the  deep  cut 
(marked  No.  2  in  the  zinctype),  through  which  the 
latest  inhabitants  passed  out  of  the  ruined  enclosure 
into  the  open  plain. 

2  The  second  from  the  pre-Sargonic  gate  is  an  ex- 
ceptionally wide  buttress,  which  measures  13^  feet 
in  width. 

^  The  slope  or  batter  of  the  wall  was  in  the  pro- 
portion ot  I  to  3. 


DURING  IQTH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA     499 

Structure  measured  nine  feet,  and  was  covered  with  a  mass 
of  disintegrated  adobes.  Its  base  rested  on  a  foundation  of 
clay  laid  up  en  masse  (No.  12),  which  extended  seven  feet 
beyond  the  outer  face  of  the  wall  and  was  nearly  six  feet 
high/  with  practically  the  same  slope  as  the  latter. 

The  remains  of  Naram-Sin's  wall  (about  3750  b.  c.)  are 
very  insignificant  compared  with  those  of  Ur-Gur's.  The 
reason  is  very  apparent.  A  glance  upon  Fisher's  accom- 
panying sketch  shows  that  Naram-Sin's  wall  (No.  3)  met 
Ur-Gur's  in  an  angle  of  10°  30'.  The  last-mentioned  king 
therefore,  in  modifying  the  plan  of  the  earlier  ruler,  was  forced 
to  raze  the  old  wall  in  order  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  using 
it  as  a  base  of  operation  against  his  new  rampart.  Conse- 
quently Naram-Sin's  structure  is  preserved  only  where  it 
lies  beneath  the  wall  of  Ur-Gur,  who,  as  far  as  possible, 
utilized  it  as  a  foundation  for  his  own  bulwark.  From  the 
fact  that  the  axis  of  the  upper  sidewalk  of  the  pre-Sargonic 
gate  ( No.  6 ),  previously  described,  is  perpendicular  to  the  line 
of  Naram-Sin's  fortification  restored,  we  infer  that  Sargon's 
famous  son  built  his  wall  according  to  the  plan  of  one  of  his 
predecessors.  The  course  of  this  wall,  however,  differed 
essentiallv  from  that  of  the  earliest  rampart^  and  from  that 
of  the  time  of  Ur-Gur,  both  of  which  practically  followed 
the  same  general  trend.  All  attempts  on  the  part  of  the 
architects  to  fix  the  inner  face  of  Naram-Sin's  enclosing 
wall  have  been  unsuccessful,  so  that,  Haynes'  previous  asser- 
tions^ to  the  contrary,  we  still  are  in  absolute  ignorance  of 

'  It  descended,  therefore,  to  the  level  of  the  present  plain,  which  lies  some- 
what above  that  of  Ur-Gur's  time.  This  indicates  that  the  ground  on  which 
the 'foundation  was  laid  had  previously  been  raised.  It  is  very  probable  that 
an  earlier  wall,  afterwards  partly  covered  by  Ur-Gur's  foundation,  once  occu- 
pied the  same  site. 

2  Which  must  have  been  perpendicular  to  the  axis  of  the  lower  sidewalk 
of  the  pre-Sargonic  gate. 

3  Reproduced  in  Hilprecht,  ♦'  The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series 
A,  vol.  i,  part  2,  pp.  20,  se^. 


500  EXFLOBATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

its  original  thickness.  From  the  excavations  carried  on  at 
the  extreme  southeast  end  of  the  ridge,  it  seems  to  follow 
that  some  parts,  possibly  representing  bastions,  must  have 
been  at  least  40  feet  thick. 

The  fragment  of  wall  laid  bare  (No.  3)  is  nearly  300  feet 
-long.  Its  building  material  was  enormous  crude  bricks  made 
of  well-worked  clay  mixed  with  chopped  straw.  These 
adobes  are  exceedingly  tough  in  texture,  regular  in  form,  and 
measure  19  inches  square  by  3  inches.  Many  of  them  are 
stamped  with  Naram-Sin's  well-known  legend^  upon  their 
lower  faces.  Our  excavations  did  not  reveal  any  traces  of 
buttresses  and  panels  on  the  outer  face  of  the  wall.  The  sole 
attempt  at  relieving  the  monotony  of  the  structure  seems  to 
have  consisted  in  the  use  of  heavy  return  angles  (Nos.  4  and 
5  in  the  above  sketch),  similar  to  those  which  characterize 
the  long  pre-Sargonic  wall  disclosed  by  the  fourth  expedi- 
tion on  the  west  side  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil.  In  one  of  these 
angles  (No.  5)  is  a  fine  water-conduit  of  baked  bricks  laid  in 
bitumen  and  still  rising  to  a  height  of  53/^  feet.  It  is  in  such 
an  excellent  state  of  preservation  that  we  scarcely  can  realize 
that  it  was  constructed  nearly  six  thousand  years  ago.  The 
lower  part  of  this  drain  is  a  solid  base,  a  little  over  6  feet 
wide,  8  feet  deep,  and  2  feet  high,  covered  on  its  top  with  a 
heavy  layer  of  bitumen.  The  only  evidence  of  a  former 
batter  of  the  wall  is  found  in  the  two  sides  of  the  conduit 
(which  is  4  feet  8  inches  deep),  each  course  of  brick  reced- 
ing slightly  from  that  below  it."  In  1895  Haynes  unearthed 
a  large  number  of  terra-cotta  cones  and  water  spouts  at  the 
base  of  the  small  section  of  wall  examined  by  him.^  None, 
however,  were  discovered  five  years  later  when  we  subjected 
the  whole  ridge  to  a  most  careful  examination.     The  reason 

1  Comp.  p.  388. 

2  Most  measurements  given  and  certain  architectural   details   stated  in  my 
sketch  above  were  obtained  from  Fisher's  report  on  the  outer  wall. 

^  Comp.  pp.  424,  seg.,  above. 


DURING  19111   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      501 

for  this  seemingly  strange  circumstance  can  only  be  that 
Haynes  accidentally  had  struck  an  architecturally  prominent 
part  of  the  wall  (No.  7),  a  bastion  well  drained  and  orna- 
mented with  parapets,  which  flanked  the  great  northeast  gate 
of  the  city. 

7.  Two  theories  had  been  advanced  with  regard  to  the 
extensive  building  remains  discovered  in  the  upper  strata 
of  Bint  el-Amir.  Peters  regarded  them  as  the  ruins  of  the 
temple  of  Bel  according  to  its  latest  reconstruction  by  a 
Persian  king  living  about  500  b.  c,  and  dedicating  the  sacred 
enclosure  to  a  new  religion  (p.  329,  seq.).  The  present 
writer  from  the  very  beginning  interpreted  the  vast  struc- 
ture as  an  entirely  new  creation  of  an  even  later  period, 
which  stood  in  no  historical  relation  to  the  Babylonian  sanc- 
tuary beneath  it.  He  believed  that  it  was  a  fortified  Parthian 
palace  built  around  the  ziggurrat  as  a  citadel  on  the  site  of 
the  ancient  temple  (pp.  327,  364,  373,  seq.).  The  former 
was  convinced  that  the  huge  enclosing  walls  and  the  two 
round  towers  protecting  them  originated  with  Ur-Gur  (about 
2700  B.  c.).^  The  writer  declared  them  to  form  an  insepara- 
ble part  of  the  Parthian  construction  built  2500  years  later 
than  the  time  assigned  to  them  by  Peters. 

In  sketching  the  work  of  the  four  Philadelphia  expedi- 
tions at  Nuffar,  I  repeatedly  took  occasion  to  indicate  that 
it  is  impossible  to  reconcile  Peters'  view  with  all  the  facts 
brought  to  light  by  our  various  excavations.  The  crude 
bricks  characterizing  the  latest  edifice  are  difl^erent  from 
those  which  we  meet  in  the  Babylonian  and  Persian  strata. 
And  with  but  few  exceptions,"  the  antiquities  gathered  in 
its  rooms  point  unmistakably  to  the  Hellenistic  and  Roman 
periods  as  the  real  time  of  their  construction  and  occupancy. 

^   Comp.  Peters'  "Nippur,"  vol.  ii,  pp.   148,   seqq.,   esp.  pp.   157,  seq. 

-  Stray  antiquities  belonging  to  different  periods  of  Babylonian  history 
which  occur  occasionally  in  the  upper  strata  of  all  the  mounds  of  Nuffar. 
Comp.  pp.  340,  note  i,  366,  seq.,  ^"jz. 


502  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

I  refer  briefly  to  the  numerous  coins  of  the  Arsacide  kings 
(about  250  B.  c.  to  226  A.  D.)  found  in  the  dei/ris  filling 
those  chambers,  in  the  bricks  of  their  walls,  and  in  the  mor- 
tar which  united  them  (p.  327).  Or  I  mention  the  peculiar 
class  of  terra-cotta  figurines  and  the  fine  enamelled  lamp 
with  the  head  of  Medusa,  described  above  (pp.  330,  seq.)y 
the  graceful  small  flasks,  vases,  and  other  vessels  in  glass,  the 
exceedingly  thin  and  fragile  bowls  in  terra-cotta  (p.  288),  the 
fragments  of  cornices  in  limestone  with  their  Greek  and 
Roman  designs  (comp.  p.  366),  the  Rhodian  jar  handle  with 
the  Greek  inscription  (p.  366),  and  many  other  equally  in- 
structive antiquities  which  cannot  be  considered  in  this  con- 
nection. The  evidence  already  submitted  is  conclusive,  and 
shows  that  the  building  under  consideration  belongs  to  that 
period  which  we  generally  call  Parthian,  —  a  period  charac- 
terized by  the  welding  together  of  classical  and  Oriental 
elements  and  the  subsequent  rising  of  a  short-lived  new 
civilization  and  art.  This  period  lasted  about  four  to  five 
hundred  years,  and  represents  the  last  flaring  and  flashing 
of  a  great  light,  once  illuminating  the  whole  world,  before  its 
final  extinction. 

Two  new  important  proofs  were  adduced  in  connection 
with  the  work  of  our  latest  expedition  to  substantiate  and  to 
supplement  those  general  conclusions  at  which  I  practically 
had  arrived  in  the  course  of  our  first  campaign.^  The  com- 
plete removal  of  the  large  fortification  tower  opposite  the 
entrance  of  the  ziggurrat  (p.  444)  revealed  the  interesting 
fact  that  it  stood  directly  over  the  ruined  gate  of  the  Baby- 
lonian temple  (p.  483).  More  than  this,  a  stray  cuneiform 
tablet  of  the  firm  of  Murashu  Sons,  dated  in  the  reign  of 
Darius  II  (423-405  b.  c),  was  discovered  in  its  foundation. 
It  had  evidently  been  placed  there  as  a  talisman'"^   by  those 

'  Comp.  Peters'  "Nippur,"  vol.  ii,  p.  118,  with  the  passages  quoted  on 
the  preceding  page. 

2   Comp.  pp.   154,  seq.,   168,  233,  seg.,  367. 


DURING   19"'  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      503 

who  erected  the  first  fortified  palace  on  the  site  of  the  ancient 
temple.  Consequently  the  banking-house  of  Murashia 
Sons,  situated  on  the  western  side  of  the  Chebar,  must  have 
been  in  ruins  for  some  time  previous  to  the  building  of 
that  palace.  Hence  it  follows  that  the  latter  cannot  be 
older  than  the  second  half  of  the  fourth  century,  when  cune- 
iform writing  no  longer  was  understood  by  the  mass  of  the 
people,  and  under  the  influence  of  a  foreign  power  that 
new  civilization,  to  which  I  referred  above,  began  to  be 
grafted  upon  the  native  Babylonian.  This  leads  us  to  the 
period  of  the  Seleucidan  rulers  as  the  earliest  possible  time 
when  the  first  fortress  was  constructed  on  the  temple  mound 
of  Nuffar.  To  this  period  must  be  ascribed  all  the  remains 
marked  I  on  the  plan  of  the  "  Parthian  Palace  built  over 
the  Ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Bel,"  which  appears  below. ^ 
They  are  comparatively  insignificant,  consisting  only  of  a 
few  rooms  and  two  round  towers,  one  of  which  was  incor- 
porated with  the  second  fortress.  But,  as  the  two  architects 
observed  correctly,  they  can  easily  be  distinguished  from  the 
other  buildings  by  the  size  and  quality  of  their  bricks,^  the 
greater  depth  of  their  level,^  and  the  direction  of  their  walls, 
the  later  walls  crossing  the  earlier  ones  at  an  angle  of  8°  lo'. 
"  A  line  drawn  through  the  centres  of  the  two  earlier 
towers  is  parallel  to  the  walls  of  the  various  groups  of  rooms 
of  that  period;  and  similarly  a  line  through  the  centres  of 
the  two  larger  towers  [forming  part  of  the  inner  wall]  is 
parallel  to  the  rooms  of  the  second  palace,"^  and  — we  may 
add  —  also  to  the  principal  fa9ades  of  the  ancient  ziggurrat. 

1  In  the  chapter  "  On  the  Topography  of  Ancient  Nippur." 

2  The  earlier  bricks  measure  12^  by  12^  by  6  inches,  and  contain  less 
potsherds  than  the  later  bricks,  which  are  almost  cubical,  measuring  121^  by 
11^  by  9  inches. 

*  The  remains  of  the  older  fortress  lie  six  to  eight  feet  below  the  rooms  of 
the  later  palace. 

*  Quoted  from  Geere's  report. 


504  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

No  satisfactory  reason  has  as  yet  been  found  to  explain  why 
the  builders  of  the  earlier  fortress  deviated  from  the  direc- 
tion fixed  thousands  of  years  before  by  the  architects  of  the 
Babylonian  temple.  The  difference  of  bricks  used  in  the 
two  fortresses  can  very  distinctly  be  seen  in  the  illustration 
facing  p.  444.  The  other  principal  results  obtained  in  the 
course  of  our  fourth  campaign  with  regard  to  the  large  com- 
plex covering  the  temple  mound  are  incorporated  in  a  sub- 
sequent chapter,  "  On  the  Topography  of  Ancient  Nippur." 
In  this  place  it  may  suffice  to  state  a  second  important 
reason  for  assigning  its  construction  to  the  Parthian  rulers 
of  the  country. 

Toward  the  end  of  November,  1899,  an  unusually  inter- 
esting tomb  was  disclosed  in  the  ruins  to  the  south  of  Bint 
el-Amir  (comp.  p.  444).  It  was  situated  beneath  the  mud 
floor  of  one  of  the  rooms  ^  built  into  the  top  of  the  outer 
enclosing  wall  of  the  fortress,  and  consisted  of  burned  bricks 
generally  placed  on  their  edges.  This  funeral  chamber  was 
reached  by  a  flight  of  steps  of  irregular  height  and  tread, 
constructed  of  the  same  material.  Both  the  tomb  proper 
and  the  stairway  leading  to  it  were  arched  over.^  When  dis- 
covered, the  entrance  way  was  closed  with  bricks  loosely  laid 
on  the  steps  and  some  pieces  of  a  large  slab,  which  seem  to 
have  belonged  together  originally  ^  and  formed  the  cover 
stone  for  the  whole  stairway.  The  w^alls  and  the  poorly  con- 
structed ceiling  were  laid  in  clay  mortar  coated  with  bitumen 

1  Marked  No.  3  on  the  plan  of  the  "  Parthian  Palace,  built  over  the  Ruins 
of  the  Temple  of  Bel,"  p.  559,  below. 

-  Comp.  the  illustration,  p.  512,  below,  which  represents  two  similar 
arched  tombs  of  the  same  period  excavated  in  the  southeastern  slope  ot  the 
library  mound. 

8  As  the  writer  was  not  present  when  the  tomb  was  opened,  he  gathered 
the  facts  from  the  reports  of  Haynes  and  Geere.  The  latter  remarks:  *'  It  is 
to  be  supposed  that  in  raising  this  slab  on  some  later  occasion  —  probably 
when  the  second  burial  took  place  —  it  was  broken,  whereupon  the  tomb  was 
closed  with  its  fragments  and  bricks  in  the  manner  indicated." 


DURING  10TH   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND    BABYLONIA       505 

and  plastered  with  a  stucco  of  mud.  The  floor  of  the  tomb 
was  paved  with  two  hivers  of  baked  bricks,  so  that  damp- 
ness was  efl^ectively  excluded  from  the  room. 

This  vaulted  funeral  chamber  was  ten  feet  long,  eight  feet 
wide,  and  a  little  over  five  feet  high,  while  the  room  above  it 
measured  almost  twelve  feet  square.  "  Entering  the  cell  a 
gruesome  sight  was  before  us.  Side  by  side  upon  the  floor 
lay  two  adult  skeletons  of  more  than  average  size."  Both 
were  considerably  injured  by  pieces  of  plaster  which  had 
fallen  from  the  roof.  The  one  farthest  from  the  door  (II,  p. 
506),  had  sufi^ered  most.  The  skull  was  completely  broken, 
and  many  of  the  larger  bones  had  been  pressed  out  of  their 
original  position  and  lay  buried  in  dust  and  debris.  The 
better  preserved  (I)  had  been  placed  in  a  wooden  coffin, 
which,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  half-decomposed  frag- 
ments, had  long  since  "  crumbled  away  and  mingled  its  red- 
dish brown  ashes  with  the  gray  ashes  of  the  grave-clothes 
and  the  decayed  tissues  of  the  body."  By  means  of  these 
relics  and  a  number  of  iron  and  bronze  nails,  which  evi- 
dently had  held  the  boards  together,  it  was  comparatively 
easy  to  trace  the  outlines^  of  the  entire  coffin.  Two  iron 
bands  (i),  slightly  projecting  beyond  the  long  sides  of  the 
coffin,  at  either  end  of  it,  had  been  fastened  as  a  support 
to  the  bottom  of  the  box.  To  the  ends  of  these  bars  silver 
rings  (2),  now  badly  corroded,  had  been  attached  as  handles 
for  the  purpose  of  lifting  and  carrying  the  coffin. 

Fortunately  this  tomb  had  not  been  rifled  in  ancient 
times,  like  so  many  others  of  the  same  general  period  in 
various  parts  of  the  ruins.  We  therefore  found  all  the  less 
perishable  objects  deposited  with  the  two  bodies,  as  far  as 
they  had  not  been  damaged  and  displaced  by  the  falling 
stucco,  exactly  where  they  originally  had  been  laid.  Evi- 
dently the  men"  buried  there  had  been  persons  of  high  rank 

^  Indicated  by  dotted  lines  in  the  accompanying  zinctype. 
-  Geere  writes,    "Judging  by  the  clothes,  bones   and  skulls,  I  should  say 
that  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  bodies  were  those  of  males." 


506 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


m  the  service  of  the  Parthian  princes  who  ruled  the  coun- 
try. Near  each  skull  lay  a  square  sheet  of  beaten  gold 
{■])  "almost  large  enough  to  cover  the  exposed  portion  of 
the  face,"  and  a  scalloped  band  ^  of  the  same  metal  (3), 
which  once  encircled  the  brow.  Two  barrel-shaped  gold 
beads  (4),  possibly  used  in  connection  with  cords  ending 
in  tassels  to  hold  the  garment  in  place,  were  found  near  the 


Plan  of  Tomb  of  Two  High  Officers  from  the  Parthian  Palace.      First  Centurj-  a.  d. 

waist  of  each  body.  Around  the  ankles  (5)  of  the  better- 
preserved  skeleton,  and  at  intervals  along  the  legs,  lay  forty- 
eight  small  gold  buttons  provided  with  ears,  and  twelve 
larger  rosettes,  which  apparently  had  served  as  ornaments 
of  the  outer  garment.  Two  heavy  gold  buckles  with  thick 
wedge-shaped  gold  latchets,  taken  from  the  floor  at  the  teet, 
were    the  gems    of  the    collection.    They    doubtless  repre- 

^   Each  band   is   about    twelve  to  thirteen    inches    long,  and   over  an    inch 
wide. 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      507 

sented  some  sort  of  sandal  fastenings.  Each  buckle  was 
adorned  with  a  well-executed  head  of  a  lion  in  high  relief, 
richly  enamelled  with  turquoise  and  set  with  rubies.  A  small 
gold  ring/  the  use  of  which  is  unknown,  and  a  beautiful 
gold  coin  (lying  near  the  head)  completed  this  remarkable 
collection. 

"  The  body  lay  at  full  length  in  a  natural  position  on  its 
back,"  with  the  head  turned  toward  the  southeast.  From  re- 
maining traces  of  clothing,  Geere  was  inclined  to  infer  "  that 
the  man  had  worn  a  cotton  shirt  and  what  looked  like  a 
leather  over-shirt,  reaching  as  far  as  the  knees."  In  accor- 
dance with  the  general  custom,  food  and  drink  were  de- 
posited with  the  two  corpses.  The  former  was  originally 
contained  in  four  terra-cotta  dishes  (7)  placed  on  a  small 
brick  shelf  (6)  and  on  the  floor  in  the  north  corner  of  the 
chamber."  The  latter  was  provided  for  in  two  large  jars  (8). 
They  stood  near  the  eastern  corner,  and  were  partly  dam- 
aged by  the  fallen  plaster. 

Every  object  contained  in  this  unique  Parthian  tomb, 
which  may  serve  as  a  representative  example  of  many  sim- 
ilar graves,  is  most  instructive.  But  our  chief  interest 
centres  in  the  gold  coin,  which  enables  us  to  date  this 
burial  with  greater  accuracy  than  usual.  It  shows  the  head 
of  a  Roman  emperor,  surrounded  by  the  Latin  inscription 
TI(BERIUS)  CiESAR  DIVI  AUG(USTI)  F(ILIUS) 
AUGUSTUS,  by  which  it  is  proved  conclusively  that  the 
two  high  officers  buried  there  cannot  have  died  before  Em- 
peror Tiberius  (14-37  a.  d.)  ;  that  consequently  the  palace 
must  have  been  inhabited  at  least  as  late  as  the  first  century 
of  our  own  era.     Other  antiquities  discovered  in  the  debris 

'  Resembling  a  heavy  earring  more  than  anything  else.  Similar  rings, 
generally  occurring  in  pairs,  were  found  repeatedly  in  Parthian  coffins  con- 
taining bodies  of  women. 

2  When  discovered,  nothing  but  "  some  light  grayish  powder"  indicated 
the  former  contents  of  the  dishes. 


508  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

of  the  palace  make   it  very  probable  that  the  fortress  was 
kept  in  repair  even  in  the  century  following. 

After  this  brief  review  of  the  principal  results  obtained  by 
the  fourth  expedition  in  connection  with  its  work  on  the 
temple  mound,  we  occupy  ourselves  for  a  few  minutes  with 
the  large  triangular  hill  to  the  south  of  the  latter.  As  previ- 
ously stated  (p.  445),  the  exploration  of  this  much  neglected 
part  of  the  ruins,  strongly  urged  by  the  present  writer,  led 
to  a  unique  result,  which  not  without  reason  has  been  pro- 
nounced one  of  the  most  far-reaching  Assyriological  discov- 
eries of  the  whole  last  century  —  the  locating  and  partial 
excavating  of  the  famous  temple  library  and  priest  school 
of  Nippur.^ 

The  excavation  of  this  vast  site  (IV  on  the  plan  of  the 
ruins,  p.  305)  began  at  its  northwest  extremity,  where  the 
depression  separating  it  from  the  temple  complex  proper  is 
covered  by  a  series  of  low  elevations.  It  was  about  the 
middle  of  October,  1899,  when  Haynes  dug  a  trench  at 
this  place  to  water  level.  As  it  yielded  nothing  but  late 
graves  and  a  few  strav  cuneiform  tablets,  the  workmen 
were  soon  afterwards  withdrawn,  to  be  replaced  by  a  larger 
force  a  month  later.  Trenches  were  now  opened  at  differ- 
ent places  along  the  three  sides  of  the  mound.  By  the 
middle  of  December  fragmentary  tablets  were  discovered  in 
large  quantities,  and  at  the  beginning  of  January,  1900,  com- 
plete specimens  came  forth  abundantly.  For  about  two 
months  and  a  half  more  the  search  was  continued,  until  on 
March  19,  for  reasons  given  above  (pp.  445,  seq.),  I 
suspended  the  excavations  in  this  part  of  the  ruins  entirely, 
in  order  to  devote  all  my  time  and  attention  to  the  many 
purely  scientific  problems  of  the  expedition,  for  which  the 
assistance  of  the  architects  was  constantly  required. 

^  Comp.  my  first  communication  to  Professor  Kittel  of  Leipzig,  published 
in  Literarisches  Centralblatt,  1900,  nos.  19,  20  ;  and  "  The  Sunday  School 
Times,"  Philadelphia,  May  5,   1900,  pp.  275,  seq. 


38 


DURING  19TU  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      509 

Haynes  unfortunately  seems  to  have  taken  no  particu- 
lar interest  in  the  extensive  building  remains  prior  to  my 
arrival,  or  in  the  precious  documents  buried  within  them, 
beyond  saving  and  counting  them  as  they  were  gathered  day 
after  day.  He  did  not  ask  Fisher  and  Geere,  who  then  stood 
under  his  direct  control  as  field  director,  to  superintend  the 
excavations  in  the  temple  library,^  nor  did  he  order  the  dif- 
ferent walls  and  rooms  exposed  by  him  to  be  measured  and 
surveyed.  Consequently  our  knowledge  as  to  how  and 
precisely  where  the  tablets  were  found  is  extremely  limited. 
As  I  must  depend  almost  exclusively  on  Haynes'  official 
entries  and  records  for  this  important  question,  I  deem  it 
necessary  to  submit  a  specimen  of  my  only  written  source 
of  information  for  the  time  prior  to  my  arrival  when  most 
of  the  tablets  were  taken  out  of  the  ground.  I  quote  liter- 
ally from  his  diary. 

"  Jan.  i6,  /poo  :  30  sound  tablets  of  promise  from  a  low 
level  in  '  Tablet  Hill.'  -^  Many  large  fine  fragments  of  tablets, 
I  pentagonal  prism,  j^^  inches  long;  its  five  sides  from  i  to 
2j/^  inches  wide.  An  hour  after  dark  last  evening  one  of 
our  workmen's  huts  burned  down  so  quickly  that  nothing 
was  saved  and  the  occupants  barely  escaped  with  their  lives. 
By  vigorous  effiarts  the  neighboring  houses  were  saved. 

"  Jan.  //,  ipoo  :  28  sound  tablets  from  low  level  from 
'Tablet  Hill.'  Very  many  large  and  fine  fragments  of  tab- 
lets, 2  prisms  and  half  a  prism  also  from  a  low  level.  The 
tablets  are  covered  with  18,  20,  and  24  feet  of  debris,  so 
that  it  requires  a  good  deal  of  time  to  secure  them,  quite 
unlike  Tel-Loh,  where  the  accumulations  are  slight. 

'  Except  one  day  in  February,  when  Fisher  was  requested  to  show  a  vis- 
itor how  tablets  were  excavated.  To  this  fortunate  circumstance  I  owe  my 
knowledge  as  to  tablets  lying  on  the  shelves  of  the  library. 

^  I  cannot  even  find  out  in  which  section  of  the  large  mound  he  unearthed 
these  particular  tablets.  Nor  is  the  slightest  indication  given  by  him  as  to 
whether  he  worked  in  a  room,  or  found  the  tablets  in  the  loose  earth,  or  in 
both. 


510  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

"  Jan.  /8,  /poo :  ^3  sound  tablets  from  a  low  level  on 
*  Tablet  Hill.'  A  multitude  of  imperfect  tablets  on  'Tablet 
Hill.'  Three  most  beautiful  days  !  And  the  nights  with 
full  moon  are  days  in  shadow,  the  air  soft  and  balmy. 

"  Jdfj.  /p,  /poo :  49  sound  tablets  all  from  low  level 
'Tablet  Hill.'      Many  fine  fragments  of  tablets." 

After  an  inspection  of  all  the  unearthed  buildings  and  an 
examination  of  a  sufficient  number  of  representative  tablets 
and  fragments,  I  could  declare  positively  at  the  beginning 
of  March  that  we  had  discovered  the  temple  library  of 
ancient  Nippur,  and  the  most  important  of  all  the  earlier 
Babylonian  schools,  where  about  the  time  of  Abraham  the 
younger  generations  were  instructed  in  the  art  of  tablet  writ- 
ing and  in  the  wisdom  of  the  god  Nabu.  Upon  the  basis  of 
Havnes'  scanty  notes;  Geere's  drawings  and  reports  on  the 
buildings  ;  my  own  investigations  and  brief  excavations,  and 
an  examination  of  the  more  intelligent  Arab  foremen  who 
previously  supervised  the  laborers  in  the  trenches,  I  present 
the  following  general  picture. 

The  mound  containing  the  remains  of  the  educational 
quarter  of  the  city  rises  to  an  average  height  of  twenty  to 
twenty-six  feet  above  the  level  of  the  present  plain,  and 
covers  an  area  of  about  thirteen  acres.  In  other  words,  it 
occupies  about  the  sixth  part  of  the  entire  site  included  in 
the  vast  temple  complex  of  Bel  on  the  northeast  side  of  the 
Chebar.  Only  about  the  twelfth  part  of  this  library  mound 
has  thus  far  been  satisfactorilv  examined  with  regard  to  the 
ruins  lying  above  the  plain  level.  The  upper  layer  is  easily 
distinguished  from  those  below  by  the  extensive  remains  of 
Parthian  buildings  constructed  of  the  same  kind  of  large  un- 
baked brick  which  characterizes  the  two  excavated  palaces  on 
the  temple  ruins  and  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil. 
No  important  traces  of  Jewish  and  early  Arabic  settlements 
were  disclosed  in  this  particular  mound.  Parthian  and  Sas- 
sanian  graves  abound  in  the  slopes  of  the  entire  hill.    They 


DUEING  W'fi  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      511 

were  not  unfrequently  found  even  in  the  central  part  of  the 
ruins,  where  they  are  sometimes  accompanied  by  terra-cotta 
drains  and  wells  ^  descending  far  into  the  lower  strata. 

Altogether  about  four  hundred  tombs,  coffins  and  burial 
urns  of  different  sizes  and  shapes  were  opened  in  the  course 
of  the  sixteen  weeks  during  which  excavations  were  carried 
on  in  "Tablet  Hill."  The  two  vaulted  brick  tombs  seen 
in  the  illustration  facing  this  page  evidently  represented 
family  vaults,  for  the  one  contained  six,  the  other  two  skel- 
etons. Unfortunately  both  were  rifled  in  ancient  times, 
since  they  could  easily  be  reached  by  robbers,  situated,  as 
they  were,  directly  on  a  public  street,  whence  a  narrow  in- 
clined paved  way  led  to  the  door  of  each  tomb. 

More  than  four  thousand  cuneiform  tablets  had  been 
discovered  in  the  upper  twenty  feet  of  accumulated  debris 
at  Mound  IV  during  our  excavations  of  1889  and  1890." 
They  included  several  hundred  contract  tablets  and  temple 
lists  written  at  the  time  of  the  Assyrian,  Chaldean,  and  Per- 
sian rulers  (about  700-400  b.  c),  a  few  fragments  of  neo- 
Babylonian  hymns,  letters  and  syllabaries,  a  considerable 
number  of  business  documents,  dated  in  the  reigns  of  the 
kings  of  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon  (about  ■2300-2100 
B.  c),  and  more  than  twenty-five  hundred  literary  fragments 
of  the  third  pre-Christian  millennium  generally  half  effaced 
or  otherwise  damaged.  I  consequently  had  reached  the 
conclusion  that  either  there  were  two  distinct  libraries  buried 
in  "Tablet  Hill,"  —  an  earlier  more  important,  and  a  later 
comparatively  insignificant  one  lying  on  the  top  of  the  for- 
mer,—  or  the  mound  concealed  the  remains  of  but  one 
library  continuously  occupied  and  repeatedly  restored,  which 
contained  documents  of  many  periods  in  the  same  rooms. 
For  apart   from    other   considerations,    the   lists   of  Cassite 

1  Comp.  nos.  4  and  5  on  the  plan  of  the  "  Northeast  Portion  of  the  Temple 
Library  at  Nippur,"  on  p.  523,  and  the  illustration  facing  p.  362,  above. 
^  Comp.  pp.  309,  se^^.,  and  341,  se^. 


612  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

names  and  words  known  from  the  Qoyunjuk  collection,  which 
Ashurbanapal's  scribes  doubtless  had  copied  at  Nippur, 
proved  sufficiently  that  occasional  additions  were  made  to  the 
tablets  of  the  earlier  library  in  the  long  interval  of  fifteen 
or  sixteen  hundred  years  which  elapsed  between  the  reign 
of  Hammurabi  and  that  of  the  last  great  Assyrian  monarch. 
The  fact  that  by  far  more  ancient  documents  were  unearthed 
than  tablets  written  in  the  neo-Babylonian  script  was  in  entire 
accord  with  what  we  know  of  the  two  great  periods  to  be 
distinguished  in  the  history  of  Nippur. 

In  the  earlier  days,  when  the  sanctuary  of  Bel  formed  the 
great  religious  centre  of  the  country,  the  library  and  school 
of  the  city  naturally  flourished  and  received  greater  atten- 
tion than  in  the  centuries  following  the  government  of 
Hammurabi,  when  Marduk  of  Babylon  and  his  cult  were 
extolled  at  the  expense  of  the  venerable  temple  of  "  the 
father  of  the  gods"  on  the  banks  of  the  Chebar.  While 
Bel  of  Nippur  decreased,  "  the  Bel  of  Babylon  "  ^  increased 
in  power  and  influence  upon  the  religious  life  of  the  united 
country.  Even  the  brief  renaissance  of  the  older  cult  under 
the  Cassite  sway  did  not  change  very  essentially  those  new 
conditions  which  had  been  the  natural  result  of  great 
historical  events  in  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Tigris.  It  was  but  an  artificial  and  short-lived  revival  of  a 
fast  disappearing  worship,  ceasing  again  when  the  national 
uprising  under  the  native  house  of  Pashe  in  the  twelfth 
century  led  to  the  overthrow  of  that  foreign  dynasty  which 
had  been  its  strongest  advocate  and  principal  supporter. 

When,  in  1899,  the  excavations  were  resumed  in  "Tab- 
let Hill,"  two  large  sections  were  excavated  in  the  eastern 
and  western  parts  of  the  mound  respectively.  Both  yielded 
large  quantities  of  exclusively  ancient  tablets  at  practically 
the  same  low  level,  and  only  single  tablets  or  small  nests  of 
old-Babylonian   and   neo-Babylonian    documents    mixed  in 

^   Comp.  p.  459,  note  3,  above. 


DURING  19Ti(  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      513 

the  upper  strata.  From  this  general  result  it  became  evi- 
dent that  the  library  doubtless  continued  to  exist  in  some 
form  or  another  at  the  old  site  through  the  last  two  thou- 
sand years  of  Babylonian  history,  but  it  also  followed  that 
the  large  mass  of  tablets  was  already  covered  under  rubbish 
at  the  close  of  the  third  millennium.  The  period  in  which 
the  older  library  fell  into  disuse  could  be  fixed  even  more 
accurately.  A  small  jar  of  baked  case  tablets  dated  in  the 
reigns  of  members  of  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon  was  un- 
earthed at  a  higher  level  than  the  body  of  those  ancient 
"clay  books."  This  seemed  to  indicate  that  the  tablet- 
filled  rooms  and  corridors  beneath  it  were  in  ruins  before 
Hammurabi  ascended  the  throne  of  Babylon,  and,  more 
than  this,  that  there  must  have  been  a  sudden  break  in 
the  continuity  of  the  history  of  the  temple  library  of  Nip- 
pur. How  can  this  apparently  natural  inference  be  sub- 
stantiated by  other  facts  ? 

It  is  impossible  to  assume  that  the  burying  of  those  thou- 
sands of  tablets  was  the  result  of  an  ordinary  though  spe- 
cially disastrous  conflagration.  The  peculiar  condition  in 
which  the  larger  part  of  the  contents  of  the  library  was  found 
speaks  decidedly  against  it.  The  tablets  occurred  in  a  stratum 
from  one  foot  to  four  feet  thick  at  an  average  depth  of 
twenty  to  twenty-four  feet  below  the  surface.  They  fre- 
quently were  badly  mutilated  and  chipped  off,  and  lay  in  all 
possible  positions  on  the  floor  of  the  ruined  chambers,  upon 
low  fragmentary  clay  ledges  extending  along  the  walls,  and 
in  the  rubbish  that  filled  the  corridors  and  open  courts  of 
the  vast  building.  In  some  of  the  rooms  which  produced 
especially  large  numbers  of  tablets,  they  were  found  in  clus- 
ters, "  interlacing,  overlapping,  lying  flatwise,  edgewise,  end- 
wise, two,  three,  four  deep,"  ^  so   that  it  was  very  apparent 

1  This  is  the  only  statement  in  Haynes'  diary  which  attempts  to  throw 
any  light  upon  the  position  in  which  the  tablets  were  found  "in  one  of  the 
rooms"  (Feb.  i6,  1900}. 


514  EXPLOliATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

that  they  had  been  stored  upon  wooden  shelves/  whence 
they  were  precipitated  when  the  roof  collapsed  and  the  walls 
cracked  and  tell. 

If  the  destruction  of  the  library  had  been  due  to  an  un- 
fortunate accident,  by  far  more  tablets  would  have  been 
discovered  on  the  clay  ledges,  where  they  occurred  only 
sporadically,  and  the  corridors  and  courts  would  have  been 
comparatively  free  from  them.  Moreover,  the  priests 
doubtless  would  have  searched  the  rooms  and  extracted 
the  most  valuable  and  complete  texts  from  the  debris 
as  soon  as  the  heat  would  allow,  preparatory  to  rebuilding 
the  entire  complex.  The  mere  fact  that  the  library  un- 
mistakably was  allowed  to  lie  in  ruins  for  a  considerable 
length  of  time  points  to  a  great  national  calamity  from 
which  the  entire  city  and  the  country  as  a  whole  likewise 
suffered  for  years.  We  are  thus  led  to  a  conclusion  similar 
to  that  at  which  we  arrived  when  we  examined  the  results 
of  our  excavations  at  the  temple  mound."  The  breaking 
and  scattering  of  so  many  thousands  of  priceless  documents 
of  the  past  was  an  act  of  gross  vandalism  on  the  part  of  the 
Elamitic  warriors,  who  invaded  and  devastated  the  Babylo- 
nian plain  about  the  middle  of  the  third  millennium  and 
played  such  terrible  havoc  with  the  archives  and  works  of 
art  in  the  court  of  the  xiggurrat. 

It  is  not  generally  known  that  at  the  time  just  mentioned 
legal  documents  and  important  income  and  expense  lists  of 
the  temple,  in  whatever  ruins  they  have  been  found,  were 
commonly  burnt  into  terra-cotta,  vyhile  the  contempora- 
neous scientific  productions,  as  a  rule,  were  inscribed  upon 
unbaked  clay.  The  reason  for  this  scarcely  accidental  pecu- 
liarity is  easily  understood  by  considering  that  in  case 
of  litigation,  everything  depended  upon  the  careful  pre- 
servation of  the  original  and  unaltered  legal  document. 
It   was  different    with    the    other  class    of   tablets.      Com- 

^   Comp.  pp.   342,  seq.,  above.  "   Comp.  pp.  380,  seqq.,  above 


DURING  19™  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      515 

pared  with  the  price  of  fuel  necessary  to  bake  the  "  man- 
uscript," the  time  and  labor  required  for  re-writing  a 
damaged  tablet  was  an  insignificant  matter  to  every  scribe, 
since  clay  was  to  be  had  abundantly  throughout  the  coun- 
try. As  nearly  the  whole  of  the  excavated  material  from 
the  ancient  library  is  literary  and  scientific  in  its  character, 
the  tablets,  with  but  few  exceptions,  are  unbaked.  They 
consequently  have  suffered  not  only  from  the  hands  of  the 
Elamites,  but  also  from  the  humidity  of  the  soil  to  which 
they  were  exposed  for  more  than  four  thousand  years  ;  from 
the  varying  atmospheric  conditions  after  their  ultimate  res- 
cue ;  and  from  the  unavoidable  effects  of  long  transporta- 
tion by  land  and  sea.  The  difficulties  of  the  decipherer  are 
thereby  increased  enormously,  and  it  will  require  more  than 
ordinary  patience  to  overcome  them  and  to  force  those  half- 
efFaced  crumbling  tablets  to  surrender  their  long-guarded 
secrets  to  our  own  generation. 

There  is,  however,  one  circumstance  which  to  a  certain 
degree  will  reconcile  us  to  the  ruthless  procedure  of  those 
revengeful  mountaineers  into  whose  quiet  valleys  and  vil- 
lages the  Babylonian  rulers  so  often  had  carried  death  and 
destruction  in  the  name  and  "  in  the  strength  of  the  god 
Bel."  Mutilated  and  damaged  as  these  tablets  are,  when 
fully  deciphered  and  interpreted  they  will  afford  us  a  first 
accurate  estimate  of  the  remarkable  height  of  Babylonian 
civilization,  and  of  the  religious  conception  and  scientific 
accomplishments  of  a  great  nation  at  a  period  prior  to  the 
time  when  Abraham  left  his  ancestral  home  in  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees.  They  will  impart  to  us  knowledge  of  a  fixed 
early  period  which  the  better-preserved  copies  of  the  royal 
library  of  Nineveh  did  not  convey,  and  which  probably  for 
a  long  time  to  come  we  should  have  been  unable  to  obtain, 
had  the  temple  library  of  Nippur  not  been  destroyed  by  the 
Elamite  hordes.  For  those  fragile  "  clay  books,"  as  often 
as  injured  or  broken   in  the   library  and   schoolrooms    of 


516  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Nippur,  would  have  been  re-copied  by  the  scribes  in  the  de- 
veloped form  of  the  script  of  a  later  period,  and  in  the  case 
of  Sumerian  texts  frequently  translated  into  the  Semitic  dia- 
lect of  the  country,  which  would  have  made  it  difficult  and 
often  impossible  for  us  to  determine  with  anv  degree  of 
certainty  whether  the  contents  of  those  copies  were  already 
known  in  the  third  millennium,  or  to  what  period  of  Baby- 
lonian history  they  actually  belonged. 

The  question  may  be  raised,  How  did  those  earlier  tablets 
which  we  found  in  the  rooms  and  rubbish  of  the  upper 
strata  come  to  form  part  of  the  later  library  ?  After  the 
expulsion  of  the  Elamites,  when  normal  conditions  began  to 
prevail  again  in  Shumer  and  Akkad,  the  priests  of  Nippur 
returned  to  their  former  quarters  and  rebuilt  their  schools 
and  libraries  at  the  place  previously  occupied.  In  levelling 
the  ground  they  necessarily  came  upon  many  of  the  texts 
of  the  ruined  library.  Other  earlier  tablets,  however,  must 
have  been  added  at  a  much  later  period  as  the  result  of 
regular  excavations,  as  is  shown  by  the  following  instance. 

Soon  after  my  arrival  at  Nuffar  in  1900,  an  important  jar 
in  terra-cotta  was  unearthed  in  the  upper  strata  of  the 
southwestern  wing  of  the  library.  It  contained  about 
twenty  inscribed  objects,  mostly  clay  tablets,  which  con- 
stituted a  veritable  small  Babylonian  museum,  the  earliest 
of  its  kind  known  to  us.  These  antiquities,  already  more 
or  less  fragmentary  when  deposited  in  the  jar,  are  equally 
remarkable  for  the  long  period  which  they  cover  and  the 
great  varietv  of  the  contents  of  their  inscriptions.  They  had 
apparently  been  collected  by  a  neo-Babylonian  priest  or 
some  other  person  connected  with  the  temple  library.  For 
there  is  evidence  at  our  disposal  to  show  that  at  the  time 
of  Nabonidos  (556-539  B.C.),  whom  we  may  style  the  royal 
archaeologist  on  the  throne  of  Shumer  and  Akkad,  wider 
circles  among  his  subjects  began  to  interest  themselves  in 
archaeological  work.    There  were  persons  who  not  only  fol- 


DURING   ID'u   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND   BABYLONIA      517 

lowed  the  king's  excavations  of  half-forgotten  sites  with  great 
attention  in  general,  but  who  were  eager  to  profit  by  them, 
and  even  to  imitate  the  example  of  their  ruler.  To  illustrate 
by  a  new  example  this  remarkable  spirit  of  scientific  investi- 
gation fostered  especially  in  the  Babylonian  priest-schools, 
I  refer  briefly  to  a  fine  object  in  half-baked  clay,  several  years 

ago  acquired  by 
me  for  the  Uni- 
versity of  Penn- 
sylvania. O  n 
the  front  it  bears 
an  old-Babylo- 
nian legend  in 
raised  characters 
reading  b  a  c  k  - 
wards,  while  a 
label      in      neo- 

.     T     •  •      fc        T  /  Q  X  Babylonian  writ- 

squeeze  or  an  Inscription  or  bargon  1.  (  3000  b.  c.  )  _         •  _       _ 

Taken  by  a  Babylonian  scribe  of  the  sixth  century  B.   C.  '"g     '^     inSCnbcd 

on  the  other 
side.  To  my  astonishment,  the  antiquity  proved  to  be 
nothing  less  than  an  excellent  squeeze  or  impression  of  an 
inscription  of  Sargon  of  Agade  ^  prepared  by  a  scribe  whose 
name  is  identical  with  that  of  several  scribes  occurring  on 
contract  tablets  of  the  British  Museum  dated  in  the  reign 
of  Nabonidos.  The  label  informs  us  that  the  object  is  a 
"  squeeze  "  or  "  mould  "  {zipu)  of  an  inscribed  stone,  "  which 
Nabuzerlishir,  the  scribe,  saw  in  the  palace  of  King  Naram- 
Sin  at  Agade." 

But  to  return  to  the  interesting  jar  from  the  library 
mound  of  NufFar  :  the  owner,  or  curator,  of  the  little  mu- 

1  It  consists  of  five  lines,  reading  (  i)  Shargani-shar-ali  (2)  the  powerful 
(3)  king  (4)  of  the  subjects  (5)  of  Bel.  This  inscription  is  identical  with 
lines  I,  3,  4,  7,  8  of  the  same  ruler's  legend  from  Nippur,  published  in  Hil- 
precht,  "  The  Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.  i,  part  i,  no.  2. 


518 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


seum  of  Babylonian  originals  must  have  obtained  his  speci- 
mens by  purchase  or  through  personal  excavations  carried 
on  in  the  ruined  buildings  of  Bel's  city.  He  doubtless  lived 
in  the  sixth  century,  about  the  time  of  King  Nabonidos, 
and  was  a  man  well  versed  in  the  ancient  literature  of  his 
nation  and  deeply  interested  in  the  past  historv  of  Nippur. 
This  follows  from  the  fact  that  his  vase  was  found  in  the 
neo-Babylonian  stratum   of  "  Tablet  Hill,"  and   from   the 


^ 


%1- 


|j/4L^ 


Large  Fragment  ot  a  Clay  Tablet  containing  the  Plan  of  Nippur  and  its  Environments 

circumstance  that  the  latest  antiquitv  of  his  collection  is 
dated  in  the  government  of  Sinsharishkun,  the  last  repre- 
sentative of  the  Assvrian  dynastv  (about  615  b.  c). 

Every  object  contained  in  this  vase  is  a  choice  specimen, 
and  evidently  was  appreciated  as  such  by  the  collector  him- 
self, who  had  spared  no  pains  to  secure  as  many  repre- 
sentative  pieces   as  possible.      The    first  antiquity    of  my 


DURING   19TII  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      519 

Babylonian  colleague  which  I  examined  was  the  fragment 
of  a  large  tablet  with  the  plan  of  houses,  canals,  roads, 
gardens,  etc.  I  could  well  realize  the  delight  he  must  have 
felt  in  acquiring  this  specimen.  For  even  before  having 
cleaned  it,  I  recognized  that  it  represented  a  section  of  the 
ground  plan  of  the  environments  of  Nippur,  —  a  subjective 
view  soon  afterwards  confirmed  by  discovering  that  the 
ideogram  of  "  the  city  of  Bel,"  En-lil-ki,  i.  <?.,  Nippur,  was 
written  in  the  middle  of  the  fragment.  The  next  piece  I 
picked  up  was  a  somewhat  damaged  brick  stamp  of  Bur-Sin 
of  Ur  (about  2600  b.  c),  the  only  one  of  this  ruler  thus 
far  excavated  at  Nuffar.  The  third  was  a  well  preserved 
black  stone  tablet  (about  2700  b.  c.)  with  the  Sumerian  in- 
scription :  "  To  Bel,  the  king  of  the  lands,  his  king,  Ur-Gur, 
the  powerful  champion,  king  of  Ur,  king  of  Shumer  and  Ak- 
kad,  has  built  the  wall  of  Nippur."  The  fourth  was  a  tablet 
containing  most  welcome  information  as  to  the  number  of 
temples  and  shrines  once  existing  at  Nippur,  and  the  names 
of  the  gods  and  goddesses  worshipped  in  them.  The  fifth 
bore  the  name  and  titles  of  Sargon  of  Agade  (3800  b.  c), 
at  whose  time  it  had  been  inscribed.  The  next  two  antiqui- 
ties represent  the  first  contract  tablets  dated  according  to  the 
reigns  of  members  of  the  Pashe  Dynasty,  the  one  being  a 
tablet  dated  "in  the  fifth  year  of  Marduk-na-di-in-akh-khi, 
king  of  the  world  {shar  /^/j/zj/z^^/i),"  a  contemporary  of  Tiglath- 
pileser  I.  (about  iioo  b.  c),  the  other  being  dated  "  in  the 
tenthyear  of  Adad-apal-iddina,^the  king"  (about  1060  b.  c), 
father-in-law  of  the  Assyrian  king  Ashurbelkala.  The  eighth 
and  ninth  tablets  are  of  chronological  importance  for  the 
final  period  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  as  both  of  them  men- 
tion certain  years  of  "  Ashuretililani,  king  of  Assyria,"  and 
Sinsharishkun  in  connection  with  loans  and  payments  of 
interest.  The  tenth  contains  an  interesting  astronomical 
^  Written  (without  the  determinative  for  man)  'MM-TUR-USH-SE-//^. 
It  was  previously  known  that  this  monarch  built  at  Nippur. 


520  EXPLOBATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

observation  concerning  Virgo  and  Scorpion,  closing  with  the 
words,  "  thus  the  calculation  "  {ki-a-am  ne-pi-shu),  etc.,  etc. 

This  remarkable  collection  of  mostly  fragmentary  tablets 
illustrates  the  high  esteem  in  which  those  ancient  texts, 
as  historical  sources,  were  held  by  the  learned  priests,  and 
the  methodical  manner  in  which  they  were  gathered  and  pre- 
served in  the  latest  temple  library  of  Nippur ;  while  at  the 
same  time  it  serves  as  a  good  example  of  the  variety  of 
subjects  treated  in  the  "clay  books"  of  the  Babylonian 
archives. 

According  to  the  results  already  obtained,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  whole  area  occupied  by  the  large  triangu- 
lar mound  was  included  in  the  temple  library  and  school  of 
the  city.  The  real  Babylonian  buildings,  as  far  as  excavated, 
mav  naturally  be  divided  into  a  northeast  and  a  southwest 
section.  An  enormous  barrier  of  unexplored  debris,  "pierced 
only  by  one  large  tunnel  and  a  few  branch  tunnels,"  ^  lies  at 
present  between  the  two  quarters.  The  ground  plan  of 
the  entire  complex  can  therefore  not  yet  be  determined. 
Both  wings  consist  of  a  number  of  chambers,  corridors, 
fragmentary  walls,  streets,  etc.,  found  at  the  same  low  level 
as  stated  above  (p.  512).  Both  were  constructed  of  crude 
bricks  of  the  same  size,  and  otherwise  present  the  same 
general  characteristics.  For  reasons  previously  set  forth 
(p.  513),  they  must  be  ascribed  to  the  third  pre-Christian 
millennium.  Apart  from  other  considerations,  we  know 
from  the  remains  of  burnt  brick  structures  lying  immedi- 
ately above  the  earlier  rooms,  and  at  least  in  part  following 
their  lines,  that  the  library  was  rebuilt  after  its  destruction 
by  the  Elamites,  and  probably  continuously  occupied  dur- 
ing all  the  subsequent  periods  of  Babylonian  history. 

My  present   sketch   of  architectural  details   deals  exclu- 

1  Words  and  sentences  placed  in  quotation  marks  on  this  and  the  follow- 
ing pages  are  extracts  from  Geere's  report  on  the  architectural  features  of  the 
temple  library. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      521 

sively  with  the  lowest  building  remains.  As  it  is  extremely 
difficult  to  distinguish  wet  crude  bricks  laid  in  mud  mortar 
from  the  earth  and  rubbish  around  them,  the  Arab  work- 
men could  not  always  ayoid  injuring  them  or  cutting  them 
away  entirely.  Consequently  it  often  was  impossible  to 
ascertain  the  original  thickness  and  direction  of  the  walls 
with  any  degree  of  certainty.  In  accordance  with  what  is 
generally  known  as  a  characteristic  feature  of  Babylonian 
architecture,  we  observed  that  "  the  walls  of  chambers  are 
frequently  not  made  at  right  angles  to  one  another."  In 
some  cases,  especially  in  the  southwest  section,  extremely 
narrow  openings  are  to  be  seen.  Being  too  narrow,  and 
otherwise  unsuitable  for  passageways,  and  sometimes  termi- 
nating abruptly,  they  may  have  been  used  as  recesses  for 
storing  tablets  and  other  objects. 

The  excavated  part  of  the  southwest  wing  of  the  large 
complex  comprises  forty-four  rooms  and  galleries,  more  or 
less  connected  with  each  other ;  the  northeast  section  about 
forty.  The  various  chambers  differ  greatly  as  to  their  dimen- 
sions, varying,  as  they  do,  from  3^^  by  9  feet  to  14  by  25 
feet.  The  average  thickness  of  the  walls  being  only  2j/4  to 
3  feet,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  houses  had  but  one  story. 
We  nowhere  discovered  traces  to  indicate  how  the  rooms 
were  originally  lighted,  nor  how  they  were  roofed.  "  The 
roofing  probably  was  by  means  of  wooden  beams  which 
supported  flat  roofs  of  matting  and  mud,  similar  to  those 
constructed  in  the  country  at  the  present  day."  If  ever 
there  were  windows  in  the  rooms,  they  must  have  been  very 
small  and  high  up  near  the  ceiling.  The  explored  sections 
are  not  large  enough  to  show  whether  the  halls  and  cham- 
bers were  grouped  around  open  courts  and  constituted  one 
enormous  building,  or,  as  seems  more  probable,  belonged 
to  separate  houses  which  formed  one  organic  whole,  but 
were  divided  into  single  quarters  by  narrow  streets  and  cov- 
ered passageways.  In  not  a  single  case  was  any  trace 
39 


622  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  pavement  observ^ed.  We  must  therefore  presume  that 
the  rooms  consisted  only  of  earth,  well  trodden,  covered 
with  reed  or  palm  mats  over  which  rugs  were  doubtless 
often  spread.  In  a  like  manner  the  walls  were  kept  entirely- 
bare,  no  attempt  being  made  at  relieving  their  dull  faces 
with  any  kind  of  decoration.  "  We  saw  no  sign  of  paint 
and  no  remains  of  plastering,  not  even  of  mud  plaster." 

These  earlv  Babylonians,  who  excelled  all  other  ancient 
nations  of  the  same  period  in  their  lofty  religious  concep- 
tions, in  the  depth  of  their  sentiment  and  in  the  scientific 
character  of  their  investigations,  did  not  suffer  anything  in 
their  schoolrooms  that  would  tend  to  distract  the  minds  of 
the  pupils  and  to  interfere  with  their  proper  occupation. 
The  temple  library  of  ancient  Nippur  was  eminently  a  place 
of  study  and  a  seat  of  learning,  where  the  attention  of  all 
those  who  assembled  for  work  was  concentrated  upon  but 
one  subject,  —  the  infusing  or  acquiring  of  knowledge.  In 
accordance  with  an  ancient  Oriental  custom  even  now  uni- 
versally prevailing  in  the  East  —  in  the  great  Mohammedan 
university  of  Cairo  as  well  as  in  the  small  village  schools  of 
Asia  Minor  —  we  should  imagine  the  Babylonian  students 
of  the  time  of  Abraham  being  seated  on  the  floor  with 
crossed  legs,  respectfully  listening  to  the  discourses  of  the 
priests,  asking  questions,  practising  writing  and  calculating 
on  clav  tablets,  or  committing  to  memory  the  contents  of 
representative  cuneiform  texts  by  repeating  them  in  a  mod- 
erately loud  voice. 

The  "books"  required  for  instruction,  reference  and 
general  reading  as  a  rule  were  unbaked  clay  tablets  stored 
on  shelves,  or  sometimes  deposited  in  jars.  The  shelves 
were  made  either  of  wood,  —  as  ordinarily  was  the  case  also 
in  the  business  houses  on  the  western  side  of  the  Chebar, 
—  or  of  clay,  for  which  rooms  Nos.  1-3  on  the  accom- 
panving  plan  of  the  "  Northeast  Portion  of  the  Temple 
Library  "   offer  appropriate  examples.      These  clay   ledges 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      523 

were  built  up  in  crude  bricks  to  a  height  of  nearly  twenty 
inches  from  the  apparent  floor  level,  and  on  an  average  were 
about  one  and  a  half  feet  wide.     Two  of  the  rooms  (Nos.  i 


-,/ 


Northeast  Portion  of  the  Temple  Library  at  Nippur 
Suti'eyed  and  draivri  by  Geo  e 

A,  B.  Exca:vated  groups  of  rooms  and  galleries 

7,  2,  J.  Rooms  ivtth  cla\  ledges  ivhuh  produced  especially  large 

numhe'S  of  cuneiform  tablets 

^,  J.    Terra-cotta  drains  belonging  to  late  graves 


and  3),  yielded  tablets  and  fragments  by  the  thousands, 
and  are  among  the  largest  thus  far  excavated  in  "  Tablet 
Hill."  To  preserve  the  fragile  "  books  "  from  damp- 
ness, the  clav  shelves  were  probably  covered  with  matting  or 
with  a  coating  of  bitumen.      According  to  the  report  of  the 


524  EXPLOEATIOXS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

architects,   traces    of  the   last-mentioned    material   seem    to 
have  been  disclosed  on  the  ledge  of  the  large  hall  (No.  i). 

To  judge  from  the  contents  of  more  than  twenty-four 
thousand  tablets  hurriedly  examined,  it  is  almost  certain 
that  the  vast  complex  of  houses  buried  under  the  triangular 
mound  was  used  by  the  Babylonians  for  at  least  two  dis- 
tinct purposes.  Though  literary  tablets  in  small  numbers 
occurred  almost  everywhere  in  the  hill,  the  large  mass  of 
them  was  found  within  a  comparatively  small  radius  in  and 
around  the  central  rooms  of  the  northeast  portion.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  was  not  a  single  business  document 
unearthed  in  that  general  neighborhood,  while  more  than 
one  thousand  dated  contracts,  account  lists,  and  letters  came 
from  the  southwest  rooms  of  the  mound.  It  would  there- 
fore seem  natural  to  conclude  that  in  view  of  the  doubtless 
large  traffic  carried  on  by  boats  on  the  Chebar,  the  business 
and  administrative  department  of  the  temple  was  established 
on  the  bank  of  "  the  great  canal,"  and  the  educational  depart- 
ment —  the  school  and  the  technical  library  —  in  the  rooms 
nearest  to  the  temple.  Tablets  were  doubtless  frequently 
taken  out  of  the  one  section  and  placed  temporarily  in  the 
other,  while  certain  works  of  reference  seem  to  have  been 
deposited  in  both. 

The  character  of  the  northeast  wing  as  a  combined  library 
and  school  was  determined  immediately  after  an  exam- 
ination of  the  contents  of  the  unearthed  tablets  and  frag- 
ments. There  is  a  large  number  of  rudely  fashioned  spe- 
cimens inscribed  in  such  a  naive  and  clumsy  manner  with 
old-Babylonian  characters,  that  it  seems  impossible  to  regard 
them  as  anything  else  but  the  first  awkward  attempts  at 
writing  by  unskilled  hands,  —  so-called  school  exercises. 
Those  who  attended  a  class  evidently  had  to  bring  their 
writing  material  with  them,  receiving  instruction  not  only  in 
inscribing  and  reading  cuneiform  tablets,  but  also  in  shaping 
them  properlv,  for  not  a  few  of  the  round  and   rectangular 


DUBING  IQin  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      525 

tablets  were  uninscribed.  The  contents  of  these  interesting 
"scraps  "  of  clay  from  a  Babylonian  "waste  basket"  are  as 
unique  and  manifold  as  their  forms  are  peculiar.  They 
enable  us  to  study  the  methods  of  writing  and  reading,  and 
the  way  in  which  a  foreign  language  (Sumerian)  was  taught 
at  Nippur  in  the  third  pre-Christian  millennium. 

The  very  first  lesson  in  writing  that  the  children  received 
is  brought  vividly  before  us.  I  refer  to  several  large  tab- 
lets comparatively  neatly  inscribed.  They  contain  the  three 
simple  elements  of  which  cuneiform  signs  are  generally  com- 
posed, in  the  order  here  given  and  repeated 
again  and  again  over  three  columns.  Or  I 
mention  a  much  smaller  table   showing  no 


T^< 


thing  but  the  last  given  wedge  dozens  of  times  inscribed 
in  horizontal  lines  upon  the  clay.  When  the  first  difficul- 
ties had  been  mastered  by  the  student,  he  had  to  put  those 
three  elements  together  and  make  real  cuneiform  signs. 
As  we  do  in  our  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  classes  to-day, 
the  easiest  and  most  simple  characters  were  selected  first. 
The  pupil  was  then  told  to  group  them  together  in  differ- 
ent ways,  generally  without  regard  to  their  meaning,  simply 
for  the  sake  of  fixing  them  firmly  in  mind.  There  are  a 
good  many  specimens  preserved  which  illustrate  this  "  sec- 
ond step  "  in  the  study  of  Babylonian  writing.  We  have, 
e.  g.,  a  large  fragment  with  two  identical  columns,  in  which 
every  line  begins  with  the  sign  I?a :  i.  I'a-a,  i.  ba-mu,  3. 
ba-ba-mu,  4.  ba-ni,  5.  ba-ni-ni^  6.  ba-ni-a^  7.  ba-ni-mUy  etc. 
Another  fragment  deals  with  more  difficult  characters  placed 
alongside  each  other  in  a  similar  manner:  i.  za-an-tur,  2. 
za-an-tur-tur,  3.  za-an-ka^  4.  za-an-ka-ka^  5.  za-an-ka-a,  6. 
za-an-ka-mu.  A  fragment  of  the  easier  sort  of  exercises 
offers,  I.  an-ni-si^  1.  an-ni-su^  3.  an-ni-mu,  ttc.  A  fourth  one 
is  of  additional  value,  because  it  contains  no  less  than  four 
mistakes  in  a  comparatively  small  space.  Let  me  correct  the 
exercises  of  this  young  Babylonian  who  lived  prior  to  Abra- 


526  EXPLOBATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

ham  and  transliterate  what  he  has  to  say:  i.  shi-ni,  2.  shi- 
ni-mu,  3.  shi-ni-da-a,  4.  shi-tur,  5.  shi-tur-tur.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  know  how  such  apparent  carelessness  or 
stupidity  was  dealt  with  by  the  professors  in  the  great  Bel 
college  and  university  of  Calneh. 

But  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  go  through  the  whole  pre- 
scribed "  college  "  course,  which  possibly  even  at  those  early 
times  lasted  three  years,  as  it  did  in  the  days  of  Daniel  (Dan. 
I  :  4,  5).  After  the  student  had  been  well  drilled  in  writing 
and  reading  the  simple  and  more  complicated  cuneiform  signs, 
he  began  to  write  words  and  proper  names.  At  the  same 
time  lists  were  placed  before  him  from  which  to  study  all  the 
difficult  ideographic  values  which  the  Sumerians  associated 
with  their  numerous  characters.  These  syllabaries  and  lexi- 
cographical lists  are  of  the  utmost  importance  for  our  own 
scientific  investigations,  and  will  greatly  help  us  in  extending 
and  deepening  our  knowledge  of  the  Sumerian  language.  I 
remember  having  seen  hundreds  of  them  among  the  tablets 
which  1  cleaned  and  examined  in  Nuffar  and  Constantino- 
ple.^ Even  in  their  outside  appearance,  as  a  rule  they  are 
easily  distinguished  from  tablets  dealing  with  other  subjects. 
They  generally  are  long  but  very  narrow,  rounded  on  the 
left  edge  and  also  at  the  upper  or  lower  end,  or  both  at  the 
same  time.  The  right  side,  on  the  contrary,  is  always  flat, 
as  if  cut  off  a  large  tablet,  which  while  wet  was  divided  into 
several  pieces." 

There  are  also  grammatical  exercises,  exhibiting  how  the 
student  was  instructed  in  analyzing  Sumerian  verbal  forms, 
in  joining  the  personal  pronouns  to  different  substantives, 

1  Owing  to  their  long  delay  in  reaching  Philadelphia,  those  tablets  which 
were  presented  by  His  Majesty  the  Sultan  to  the  writer  have  not  as  yet  been 
unpacked. 

2  Comp.  two  similar  specimens  from  Jokha,  published  in  Hilprecht,  **  The 
Bab.  Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.  i,  part  1,  pi.  viii,  nos.  18  and 
19. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      527 

in  forming  entire  sentences,  in  translating  from  the  Sumerian 
into  the  Semitic  dialect  of  Babylonia  and  vice  versa.  His 
preparations  look  pretty  much  like  those  of  the  modern 
student  who  excerpts  all  the  words  unknown  to  him  from 
Caesar's  "  Gallic  Wars  "  or  Xenophon's  Anabasis  for  his 
work  in  the  class  room. 

Special  attention  was  paid  to  counting  and  calculating,  as 
will  be  illustrated  below  by  a  few  examples.  Even  instruc- 
tion in  drawing,  and  surveying  lessons  were  offered.  There 
are  a  few  tablets  which  contain  exercises  in  drawing  hori- 
zontal and  inclined  parallel  lines,  zigzag  lines,  lines  arranged 
in  squares,  lozenge  forms,  latticework  and  other  geometrical 
figures. 

The  course  in  art  led  gradually  up  to  free-hand  drawing 
from  nature,  and  probably  included  also  lessons  in  clay  mod- 
elling and  in  glyptics  and  sculpture  (seal  cylinders,  bas-re- 
liefs and  statues).  Several  fragments  of  unbaked  tablets 
exhibited  portions  of  animals  and  trees  more  or  less  skil- 
fully incised  in  clav.  One  bird  was  executed  very  poorly. 
A  lioness,  two  harnessed  horses  and  a  chariot — the  latter 
two  pieces  doubtless  from  the  upper  strata  —  showed  decided 
talents  on  the  part  of  those  who  drew  them.  Ground  plans 
of  fields,  gardens,  canals,  houses,  etc.,  were  found  more  com- 
monly. As  according  to  mv  knowledge  the  horse  appears  in 
Babylonia  first  shortly  before  the  middle  of  the  second  mil- 
lennium, without  hesitation  we  can  fix  the  date  of  the  draw- 
ing of  those  harnessed  horses  as  being  about  a  thousand  years 
later  than  the  school  exercises  previously  treated.  That  art 
in  general  was  greatly  esteemed  and  cultivated  by  the  priests 
of  Nippur  may  be  inferred  from  the  considerable  number 
of  clay  figurines,  terra-cotta  reliefs  and  even  fragments  of 
sculpture  (the  head  of  a  negro,  etc.)  discovered  in  the  ruins 
of  the  temple  library.  Apart  from  several  new  mythological 
representations  of  the  earlier  time  which  need  a  fuller  dis- 
cussion in  another  place,  I  refer  briefly  to  two  fine  identical 


528 


EXFLOEATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


Beltis  leading  a  Worshipper 


reliefs  of  the  later  period  made  from  different  moulds  and 
exhibiting  a    hog/   the   animal    sacred  to   the   god    Ninib,^ 

son  of  Bel  ;  or  to  an  exquis- 
itely modelled  buffalo^  walk- 
ing slowly  and  heavily,  and 
holdinor  his  mouth  and  nose 
upward  in  a  manner  charac- 
teristic of  these  animals.  There 
is  another  well  executed  bas- 
relief  "*  which  shows  Beltis 
adorned  with  a  long  robe.  In 
her  left  hand  the  goddess  has 
the  same  symbol  which  we 
often  see  with  Bel/  while  with 
her  right  hand  she  leads  a 
richly  dressed  worshipper  to 
her  shrine.  Lastly  I  men- 
tion a  much  earlier  terra-cotta  relief  depicting  a  some- 
what poetical  pastoral  scene.  A  shepherd  playing  the  lute 
has  attracted  the  attention  of  his  dog,  who  is  evidently  ac- 
companying his  master's  music  by  his  melodious  bowlings, 
and  another  unknown  animal  (sheep  ?)  is  likewise  listening 
attentively.  (See  opposite  page.)  The  whole  scene  reminds 
us  of  certain  favorite  subjects  of  the  classical  artists. 

The  general  character  and  wide  scope  of  the  temple 
library  of  Nippur  has  been  illustrated  to  a  certain  degree  by 
the  tablets  contained  in  the  jar  mentioned  above  (pp.  518, 
seqq.)  and  by  my  remarks  on  the  work  in  the  Babylonian  class- 
room. The  technical  "  books  "  on  the  shelves  gave  all  the 
necessary  information  on  the  subjects  treated  in  the  school. 

^  Comp.  Hilprecht,  /.  f.,  vol.  ix,  pi.  xiii,  no.  28. 

2  Comp.  Zimmern  in  A',  y^.   T.^,  p.  410, 

^  Comp.  Hilprecht,  /.  c,  vol.  ix,  pi.  xiii,  no.  27. 

*  Preserved  in  two  or  three  copies  made  from  different  moulds. 

^  Comp.  Hilprecht,  /.  c,  vol.  ix,  pi.  xii,  no.  25. 


DURING  19TU  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      529 


Lutanist  surrounded  by  Animals 


But  they  also  included  more  scientific  works,  tablets  for  reli- 
gious edification,  and  "  books  "  of  reference.  To  the  first- 
mentioned  class  belong  the  many  mathematical,  astronomi- 
cal, medical,  historical  and  linguistic  tablets  recovered  ;  to 
the  second  the  hymns  and  prayers,  omens  and  incantations, 
mythological  and  astrological  texts.  Among  the  books  of 
reference  I  classify  the  lists 
of  dates  giving  the  names 
of  kings  and  the  principal 
event  for  every  vear,  the 
multiplication  tables,  the 
lists  of  the  different  mea- 
sures of  length  and  capa- 
city, the  lists  of  synonyms, 
geographical  lists  of  moun- 
tains and  countries,  stones, 
plants,  objects  made  of 
wood,  etc.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  thus  far  only  about  the  twelfth  part  of 
the  entire  library  complex  has  been  excavated,  and,  though 
it  would  be  useless  to  speculate  as  to  the  exact  number  of 
tablets  once  contained  in  the  temple  library,  it  is  certain 
that  whole  classes  of  texts,  only  sporadically  represented 
among  our  present  collections,  must  still  lie  buried  some- 
where in  the  large  triangular  mound  to  the  south  of  the 
temple.  During  our  latest  campaign  we  struck  principally 
the  rooms  in  which  the  mathematical,  astronomical  (see  p. 
530),  astrological,  linguistic,  grammatical  and  certain  reli- 
gious texts  had  been  stored.  This  fact  alone  proves  that 
the  library  was  arranged  according  to  subjects  and  classified 
according  to  scientific  principles. 

In  consequence  of  the  unscrupulous  proceedings  of  the 
barbarous  Elamites  we  can  say  very  little  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  the  single  tablets  were  arranged  on  the  shelves. 
But  there  is  hope  that  we  may  find  some  better-preserved 


530 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


rooms  in  the  course  of  our  next  expedition.  From  the  catch- 
lines  and  colophons  frequently  occurring  at  the  end  of  tab- 
lets we  can  infer  with  safety  that  there  were  works  which 
consisted  of  several  "  volumes,"  sometimes  even  ol  a  whole 
series  of  tablets.  They  doubtless  were  kept  together  on  the 
same  shelf. 

Hundreds    of  very    large  crumbling  tablets,  mostly  reli- 
gious   and    mythological    in    character,    have   not  yet  been 


Astronomical  Tablet  from  the  Temple  Library 

deciphered.  They  need  careful  repairing  before  they  can 
be  handled  with  safety.  From  a  mere  glance  at  Bezold's 
"  Catalogue  of  Cuneiform  Tablets  in  the  Kouyunjik  Col- 
lection of  the  British  Museum  "^  (five  volumes),  we  learn 
that  Ashurbanapal's  scribes  copied  chiefly  religious,  astro- 
nomical and  astrological  texts  for  the  royal  library  in  Nin- 
eveh from  the  originals  at  Nippur,  Representative  tablets 
of  the  classes  mentioned  must  therefore  have  existed  at  Bel's 
temple  even  in  those  later  days,  though  the  large  body  of 
the  earlier  library  had  been  buried  in  the  ruins  beneath  their 
feet  for  more  than  fifteen  hundred  years.    With  the  limited 

1  Comp.,  e.  g.,  K.  7787,  K.  8668,  K.  10826  ;  Sm.  1117  ;   80-7-19, 
64.  ;  Bu.  88-5-12,   II,  etc. 


DURING   19TII  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      631 

Space  here  at  my  disposal  it  is  impossible  to  give  examples 
even  of  those  branches  of  Babylonian  literature  which  are 
written  on  tablets  already  examined. 

In  order  to  illustrate  by  one  example  the  important  role 
which  arithmetic  played,  I  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
about  2300  B,  c.  the  temple  library  owned  a  complete  set 
of  multiplication  tables  from  i  to  at  least  1350.  The  mere 
circumstance  that  they  existed,  sometimes  in  several  copies, 
speaks  volumes  for  the  height  of  that  ancient  civilization. 
They  doubtless  were  used  constantly  in  connection  with 
astronomical  calculations,  somewhat  according  to  the  man- 
ner of  our  logarithmic  tables.  Among  the  texts  of  this  class 
which  attracted  mv  attention  are  the  multiplication  tables 
2x1,3x1,4x1,5x1  (two  copies), 
6x1,8x1,9x1,12x1  (two  copies ), 
!24x  I,  25  X  I,  4OX  I,  60X  I,  90X  I, 
450x1,750x1,  1000x1,1350x1. 
As  a  rule  thev  contain  the  multipli- 
cations of  all  the  consecutive  num- 
bers from  I  to  19,  followed  by  those 
of  the  tens  from  20  to  50.  At  the 
end  of  most  of  the  tablets  we  find  a 
catch-line.  Thus,  e.  g.,  the  multi- 
plication table  750  X  I  has  the  catch- 
line  "720x1=720,"  thereby  indi- 
cating that  all  the  multiplication 
tablets  from  720  to  750  (probably 
even  to  780)  were  classified  in  the 
library  as  one  series,  known  under  the   name  "  Series   720 

X  I. 

There  are  three  different  ways  in  which  these  tables  are 
written.  The  following  abbreviated  specimens  may  serve  as 
examples :  — 


Multiplication  Table 
I  X  6  =  6 


532  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


5  a-du 1 

I 

5 

or    I 

90     01 

25 

I 

25 

a du 

2 

10 

2 

180 

^5 

2 

50 

a du 

3 

15 

3 

270 

25 

3 

75 

a du 

4 

20,  etc., 

4 

360,  etc., 

^5 

4 

100,  etc. 

a du 

19 

95 

19 

1710 

25 

19 

475 

a du 

20 

100 

20 

1800 

25 

20 

500 

a du 

30 

150 

30 

2700 

25 

30 

750 

a du 

40 

200 

40 

3600 

25 

40 

1000 

a du 

50 

250 

5° 

4500 

25 

50 

1250 

Concerning  the  character  of  the  business  and  administra- 
tive department  established  in  the  "  Hbrarv,"  where  con- 
tracts were  executed,  orders  given  out,  income  and  expense 
hsts  kept,  etc.,  I  have  to  add  little  to  what  has  been  previ- 
ously stated  (p.  524).  A  number  of  letters  were  found  in- 
tact. The  envelopes  sealed  and  addressed  more  than  four 
thousand  years  ago,  immediately  before  the  city  was  con- 
quered and  looted,  were  still  unbroken.  While  writing 
these  lines  one  of  those  ancient  epistles  of  the  time  of 
Amraphel  (Gen.  14)  lies  unopened  before  me.  It  is  i^V^ 
inches  long,  1]/^  inches  wide,  and  i^  inches  thick.  One 
and  the  same  seal  cylinder  had  been  rolled  eleven  times 
over  the  six  sides  of  the  clay  envelope  before  it  was  baked 
with  the  document  within.  It  bears  the  simple  address, 
"  To  Lushtamar."  Though  sometimes  curious  to  know 
the  contents  of  the  letter,  I  do  not  care  to  break  the  fine 
envelope  and  to  intrude  upon  Mr.  Lushtamar's  personal 
affairs  and  secrets,  as  long  as  the  thousands  of  mutilated  lit- 
erary tablets  from  the  library  require  all  my  attention. 

At  the  beginning  of  our  fourth  campaign  a  long  peculiar 
wall  had  been  disclosed  below  the  level  of  the  desert  on 
the  west  side  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil  (pp.  440,  447).  It  ran 
roughly  parallel  to  the  south  slope  of  the  ridge  marked  VI 
on  the  plan  of  the  ruins  (p.  305).  Haynes  traced  it  for  489 
feet,  but   having  found   no  opening  in  the  wall,  abandoned 

^  Ada,  literally  meaning  "  time,"  is  the  common  expression  also  for 
««  times  "  in  this  class  of  tablets. 


DURING   -^^™   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      533 


it  after  a  few  weeks  without  being  able  to 
fix  its  age  and  purpose.  After  my  arrival 
at  the  ruins  in  March,  1900,  we  resumed 
the  excavations  at  this  place,  and  having 
followed  the  wall  its  entire  length,'  I  suc- 
ceeded in  ascertaining  its  real  nature.  Geere 
surveyed  the  entire  structure,  and  prepared  ^ 
the  accompanying  diagram,  which  may  help 
to  illustrate  the  principal  features  of  the  ex- 
plored section. 

Except  at  one  point  where  a  complete  gap 
22  feet  wide  occurs  (between  Nos.  2  and  3), 
the  original  direction  of  the  wall  could  be 
traced  without  difficulty  for  about  590  feet, 
though  sometimes  only  by  means  of  a  few 
courses  of  bricks  still  lying  in  situ.  To- 
wards the  east  it  ran  almost  as  far  as  the 
bed  of  the  Chebar.  Towards  the  west  it 
cannot  have  extended  much  farther  than  is 
indicated  on  the  diagram,  because  the  boun- 
dary of  the  mound,  which  doubtless  stood 
in  a  certain  relation  to  the  wall,  turns 
northward  at  the  point  where  the  latter 
practically  ceases.  The  original  height  of 
the  structure  must  remain  unknown.  In 
its  present  ruinous  state  it  varies  from  two 
courses  of  bricks  to  thirty-nine,  or  from  six 
and  a  half  inches  to  eleven  feet  four  inches. 
In  a  like  manner  the  thickness  of  the  wall 
is  not  uniform.  This  peculiarity,  however, 
is  not  the  result  of  subsequent  causes,  but 
goes  back  to  the  original  builders  of  the 
wall,  who  planned  and  executed  it  in   such 

Facing  Wall  of  a 
^   Words  and  sentences  in  quotation  marks  are  extracts     Pre-Sargonic  Cemetery 

from  Geere's  report  on  this  wall. 


534  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

a  manner  as  to  have  the  central  part  the  strongest,  and  the 
sections  flanking  it  on  both  sides  successively  decreasing  in 
thickness. 

Another  characteristic  feature  of  this  structure  is  the 
remarkable  fact  "  that  the  various  sections  of  the  wall  are 
not  built  in  a  straight  line  or  from  a  uniform  level."  The 
lowest  course  of  bricks  in  some  places  lies  about  six  feet 
below  the  average  level  of  the  present  plain,  in  others  five 
and  a  half,  in  still  others  only  four  and  a  half  In  other 
words,  there  is  a  decided  difference  of  from  six  to  eighteen 
inches  between  the  levels  of  the  lowest  courses  of  bricks. 
It  is  very  evident,  therefore,  that  the  builder  of  the  wall 
did  not  dig  or  level  a  special  foundation  for  it,  but  placed 
his  bricks  directly  on  the  undulating  surface  of  the  ancient 
plain. 

What  was  the  purpose  of  this  wall  ?  We  remember  that 
everywhere  in  the  lowest  thirty  feet  of  the  ruins,  even  on 
the  west  side  of  the  canal,  Haynes  had  discovered  nothing 
but  ashes,  bits  of  charcoal,  an  occasional  decayed  bone, 
lumps  of  clay  worked  by  the  hand,  crude  and  baked  plano- 
convex bricks,  etc.,  mixed  with  earth  and  sand,  and  a  com- 
plete tomb  of  the  general  period  of  Naram-Sin  (comp.  pp. 
419,  seq.).  Our  excavations  immediately  behind  and  be- 
fore the  wall  led  to  a  similar  result.  We  did  not  excavate 
enough  to  reveal  an  intact  burial  vase,  but  we  found  suffi- 
cient evidence  to  show  that  the  western  half  of  Nippur,  like 
the  eastern  section  grouped  around  the  ziggurrat  (pp.  434, 
seqq.),  consisted  largely  of  pre-Sargonic  burials.  Every- 
where we  came  upon  traces  of  cremation,  such  as  ashes  and 
earth  mixed,  small  pieces  of  charred  wood,  potsherds,  frag- 
mentary walls  and  pavements  of  funeral  chambers.^  The 
portable  results  accordingly  were  but  few,  consisting  chiefly 

1  The  places  marked  Nos.  2  in  the  diagram  represent  pavements  ot  baked 
bricks.  Remains  of  cross-walls  meeting  the  long  wall  at  right  angles  are  seen 
near  the  two  ends  of  the  latter. 


DURING  ^^iii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      535 

of  three  fragments  of  pre-Sargonic  cuneiform  tablets,  a  clay 
impression  of  an  early  type  of  seal  cylinder,  a  fragmentary 
cylinder  in  soapstone  from  the  interior  of  a  mud  brick,  a 
few  terra-cotta  figurines  (toys),  the  fragment  of  a  large  ala- 
baster bead,  two  copper  tubes  partly  filled  with  an  unknown 
white  substance  (handles?),  two  fragments  of  a  copper  arm 
ring,  an  entire  pre-Sargonic  terra-cotta  cup,  and  a  few  pieces 
of  stone  vessels  of  the  same  early  period. 

In  continuing  our  search  for  possible  building  remains  at 
both  ends  of  the  long  wall,  we  unearthed  the  fragment  of  a 
crude  brick  wall,  i8^^  feet  thick  (No.  3),  near  the  west  bank 
of  the  Shatt  en-Nil  and  the  remains  of  a  burned  brick  pave- 
ment coated  with  bitumen  close  by.^  Under  the  latter  were 
a  bell-shaped  drain  (No.  4)  and  fragments  of  a  second 
smaller  one  to  the  west  of  it.  At  the  opposite  (west)  end 
of  the  wall  we  discovered  a  pre-Sargonic  well  built  of  brick,^ 
laid  in  herring-bone  fashion.  In  accordance  with  the  ordi- 
nary form  of  the  earliest  Babylonian  wells,  it  was  consider- 
ably narrower  at  the  top  ^  than  near  the  bottom.  We 
commenced  clearing  it  of  the  rubbish  with  which  it  was 
choked  up,  when  at  a  depth  of  over  eight  feet  we  were 
stopped  in  our  progress  by  the  water  of  the  spring  rains. 
"  The  top  of  the  well  itself  was  almost  upon  a  level  with 
the  bottom  of  the  drain  at  the  east  end  of  the  wall,"  —  a 
circumstance  sufficiently  explaining  why  the  baked  bricks 
of  the  drain  pavement  are  of  somewhat  more  recent  date 
than  those  of  the  well  at  the  west  end. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that   the  long  wall  was  a  regular 

1  The  bricks  being  slightly  smaller  in  size  than  those  of  Sargon  I.,  and 
Naram-Sin,  indicate  a  period  of  construction  not  very  far  remote  from  the 
governments  of  the  two  rulers. 

^  These  doubtless  pre-Sargonic  bricks  are  of  a  peculiar  type.  Averaging 
I  I  i^  by  7^  by  3^  inches  in  size,  they  are  nearly  flat  on  the  top,  but  have 
a  slight  furrow  along  the  one  long  edge. 

2  Three  feet  one  inch  internal  and  nearly  six  feet  external  diameter. 


536  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

facing  or  houndary  wall,  —  a  huge  buttress  of  the  same  kind 
as  repeatedly  excavated  by  Koldevvey  at  the  edges  of  the 
vast  cemeteries  of  Surghul  and  El-Hibba  (pp.  i^^,seq.).  It 
supported  the  light  masses  of  ashes  and  dust  of  the  fire 
necropolis  of  Nippur,  which  otherwise  would  have  been 
blown  into  the  plain  or  washed  away  by  the  rains  of  the 
winter.  In  view  of  the  characteristic  form  and  size  of  its 
vellow  bricks,  which  are  similar  to  those  found  in  the  lowest 
strata  of  a  section  of  Nimit-Marduk,  to  the  east  of  the  tem- 
ple,^ we  can  state  positively  that  this  buttress  belongs  to  a 
period  immediately  preceding  Sargon  I.  When  the  ceme- 
tery rose  higher  and  higher,  its  facing  wall  did  not  prove 
strong  enough  to  bear  the  additional  pressure.  "  The 
burned  bricks  were  therefore  overlaid  by  large  crude 
bricks,"  completely  imbedding  the  old  wall  and  extending 
considerably  beyond  the  exterior  face  of  the  latter,  into  the 
plain,  as  indicated  by  the  cross-lines  in  the  diagram  above. 
In  many  cases  it  was  extremely  difficult  and  often  impos- 
sible to  ascertain  the  thickness"  of  this  additional  wall,  as 
the  material  of  which  it  consisted  had  "  been  subjected  to 
a  process  of  infiltration  and  compression  for  so  many  cen- 
turies that  the  debris  at  the  foot  of  the  mound  was  practi- 
cally a  homogeneous  mass."  This  much,  however,  was 
learned  with  certainty,  that  the  bottom  course  of  the  outer 
crude  brick  wall  was  laid  at  a  higher  level  than  the  upper 
courses  of  the  remaining  inner  burned  brick  wall,  thus  illus- 

^  The  average  size  of  the  well-baked  bricks  from  the  cemetery  wall  was 
131^  to  13^  inches  square  by  31^  inches  thick,  while  the  corresponding 
bricks  from  the  lower  strata  of  Nrmit-Manluk  measured  only  11^  inches 
square  by  2  7/^  inches  thick.  The  latter  evidently  were  somewhat  older  than 
the  former.  Apart  from  their  color  we  noticed  another  characteristic  feature  of 
both  classes  of  bricks.  They  were  not  entirely  flat,  but  slightly  raised  at  their 
longer  edges. 

"^  Outside  the  central  section  of  the  burned  brick  wall,  which  required 
strengthening  most,  the  crude  brick  wall  was  from  22  to  28  feet  thick,  while 
at  its  east  end  it  was  not  quite  1 9  feet. 


DURING   lOrii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      537 

trating  that  the  constant  mud  washings  from  the  mound  and 
the  burials  gradually  taking  place  along  the  base  of  the  wall, 
had  changed  the  contour  of  the  ground  to  such  an  extent 
that  they  threatened  to  efface  the  boundary  line  between  the 
necropolis  and  the  plain  entirely. 

There  are  several  other  interesting  features  to  be  observed 
in  connection  with  this  burned  brick  wall,  which  attract  our 
attention.  I  refer  briefly  to  the  fact  that  at  its  thickest  part 
the  remains  of  a  staircase,  by  which  the  cemetery  could  be 
ascended  from  the  south,  seem  to  have  been  discovered  ; 
furthermore  that  patchings  and  repairings  of  the  wall  could 
be  traced  at  several  points  without  difficulty  ;  or  that  an  open- 
ing^ (No.  i)  to  give  exit  to  the  percolating  rain  water  was 
found  in  the  eastern  section  of  the  wall  six  and  a  half  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  brick  pavement  (No.  2).  But  it  is 
beyond  the  scope  of  this  book  to  discuss  strictly  technical 
questions  which  are  of  value  chiefly  to  the  architect. 

On  May  1 1,  1900,  the  most  successful  campaign  thus  far 
conducted  at  Nuffar  terminated.  Excavations  having  been 
suspended,  the  meftul  was  sealed,  Arab  guards  were  ap- 
pointed, shaikhs  and  workmen  rewarded,  and  the  antiquities 
transported  to  six  large  boats  moored  in  the  swamps.  Ac- 
companied by  the  workmen  from  Hilla,  their  wives  and 
children,  and  blessed  by  thronging  crowds  of 'Afej,who  had 
assembled  to  bid  us  farewell,  eagerly  inquiring  as  to  the 
time  of  our  next  return,  we  departed  with  a  strange  feeling 
of  sadness  and  pleasure  from  the  crumbling  walls  o(  Dur- 
anki^  "  the  link  of  heaven  and  earth,"  which  Ninib's  dole- 
ful birds,  croaking  and  dashing  about,  still  seem  to  guard 
against  every  profane  intruder. 

As  far  as  time  and  work  would  permit,  we  always  made 
it  a  rule  to  explore  and  survey  the  neighboring  ruins,  with 
a  view  of  placing  the  information  thus  obtained  at  the 
disposal  of  some  other  American  or  European  expedition. 

^  An  opening  3^^  inches  wide  and  16  inches  high. 
40 


538  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

During  the  Easter  week  I  decided  to  extend  our  excur- 
sions considerably  farther  to  the  south  and  to  examine  es- 
pecially the  low  mounds  oi  Abu  Hatab  and  i^'^r^,  where, 
since  the  davs  of  Loftus,  antiquities  had  constantly  been 
excavated  and  sold  bv  the  Arabs.  No  trustworthy  account 
of  either  of  these  ruins  was  yet  at  our  disposal.  In  fact, 
there  was  not  one  modern  map  which  indicated  even  their 
general  situation,^  because  they  lie  outside  the  ordinary  track 
taken  by  Babvlonian  explorers.  It  is  true  some  travellers 
had  been  in  that  neighborhood  before,  two  of  them  even  pay- 
ing a  hurried  visit  to  the  low  site  of  Fara,  but  nobody  thus 
far  had  been  able  to  ascertain  anything  definite  with  regard 
to  their  age  and  importance.  Having  previously  gathered 
all  the  necessarv  information  from  several  members  of  the 
tribes  camping  along  the  Shatt  el-Kar,  the  present  writer, 
accompanied  by  Haynes,  Geere,  and  half-a-dozen  trusted 
Arabs,  left  Nuffar  one  day  in  April  shortly  after  sunset  to 
examine  that  whole  district.  We  crossed  the  Khor  el-'Afej 
in  two  long  narrow  boats  [turradas),  and  entered  the  great 
canal  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  swamps,  descending  the 
latter  in  our  primitive  means  of  conveyance.  The  white 
blossoms  of  the  caper  shrub  (Babyl.  sikhlu),~  growing  abun- 
dantly along  the  embankments  of  the  Shatt  el-Kar  and  the 
smaller  canals,  filled  the  air  with  their  strong  aroma.  No- 
thing but  the  occasional  cry  of  an  unknown  water-bird,  dis- 
turbed in  his  rest  by  our  swiftly  gliding  boats,  interrupted 
the  impressive  stillness  of  that  beautiful  Babylonian  night. 
At  a  place  nearly  opposite  the  two  ruins  we  halted. 
Stretched  on  the  ground  or  in  the  bottom  of  our  boats 
we  awaited  the  first  rays  of  the  sun  that  we  might  proceed 
with  our  archaeological  mission. 

^  The  only  attempt  made  by  the  earlier  travellers  at  locating  Fara  is  found 
on  Loftus'  map. 

"^  The  proof  for  this  identification  will  be  found  in  Hilprecht,  "  The  Bab. 
Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.  x.  Introduction, 


DURING  19^"  CENTURY :   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      539 

As  the  results  of  this  exploration  tour  will  be  published 
in  another  place,  I  confine  myself  to  a  general  statement. 
Both  ruins  were  well  worth  the  pains  we  had  taken  in  exam- 
ining and  surveying  them.  Abu  Hatab,  considerably  smaller 
than  Fara,  is  also  the  less  remarkable  of  the  two.  Several 
half-effaced  bricks  and  a  little  excavating  in  one  of  the 
rooms,  easilv  to  be  traced  in  the  early  morning  hours,  con- 
vinced me  that  the  site  was  occupied  as  late  as  the  third  pre- 
Christian  millennium.  Fara,  a  few  miles  to  the  south  of  it, 
is  a  very  extensive  but  low  ruin  of  the  utmost  importance. 
Everywhere  the  characteristic  pre-Sargonic  bricks,  wells,  and 
drains  peep  out  of  the  ground  and  excite  the  curiosity  of 
the  explorer.  The  higher  elevation  of  the  mounds  is  at 
the  southern  end,  but  some  of  our  most  valuable  antiquities 
obtained  from  there  were  discovered  two  feet  below  the  sur- 
face in  a  depression  near  the  centre  of  the  ruin.  Like  Nuf- 
far  and  all  such  other  pre-Sargonic  ruins  of  the  country  with 
which  I  am  personally  acquainted,  it  contains  thousands  of 
burial  urns,  funeral  chambers,  pieces  of  charred  wood,  masses 
of  potsherds,  clearly  indicating  that  a  very  extensive  fire 
necropolis  was  connected  with  the  ancient  city  buried  there, 
which  doubtless  played  an  important  role  in  the  religious 
life  and  the  early  history  of  the  Sumerian  people.  If  vig- 
orously attacked  with  the  spade  and  subjected  to  a  strictly 
methodical  examination,  which,  however,  should  not  cease 
before  the  end  of  five  to  ten  consecutive  years,  it  probably 
will  yield  as  important  results  as  NufFar  and  Tello.  The 
accompanying  exquisite  head  of  a  Markhur  goat^  (p.  540) 
of  about  the  time  of  Ur-Nina  (4000  b.  c),  and  an  even  bet- 
ter-preserved larger  head  of  the  same  animal  (two  thirds  life 
size),  were  excavated  at  Fara,  together  with  a  pre-Sargonic 
sword  in  copper,  a  fine^  marble  lamp  in  the  shape  of  a  bird, 
several  complete  stone  vases,  a  very  archaic  seal  cylinder,  a 

^  Comp.  Helm  and  Hilprecht  in  Verhandlu?igen  der  Berliner  anthropolo- 
gischen  Gesellschaft,  Feb,   16,  1901,  pp.   157,  seqq. 


640 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


number  of  pre-Sargonic  clay  tablets,  and  about  sixty  incised 
plates  of  mother-of-pearl/  representing  warriors,  animals, 
handicraftsmen,  pastoral  and  mythological  scenes,  rosettes, 
etc.,  in  the  style  of  the  earliest  monuments  of  Nuffar  and 
Tello.  I'hese  antiquities  prove  that  considerable  treasures 
of  art  must  lie  concealed  in  those  low  and  insignificant-look- 
ing mounds  which  date  back  to  a  time  when  Sargon  I.  was 
not  yet  born. 


Markhur  Goat  in  Copper 
F>'om  Fara,  about  ^OOO  B.   C. 


B.       ON    THE    TOPOGRAPHY    OF    ANCIENT    NIPPUR. 

In  the  previous  pages  an  attempt  was  made  to  sketch  his- 
torically the  archaeological  work  carried  on  by  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania  in  Babylonia  since  1889.  In  order  to 
complete  the  picture  and  to  obtain  a  clearer  conception   of 

^  Comp.  pp.  252,  sei^.,  474»  ^^^- 


DURING   19TI1  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      541 

the  contents  of  the  ruins  of  Nuffar  as  far  as  explored,  it  will 
only  be  necessary  to  summarize  the  principal  results  obtained 
by  the  four  expeditions,  to  place  them  in  their  mutual  rela- 
tions, and  to  consider  them  in  a  coherent  manner  from  a 
topographical  point  of  view.  To  avoid  undesirable  repeti- 
tions, constant  references  will  be  made  to  what  has  been 
submitted  before.  The  chapter  necessarilv  must  be  brief, 
especially  as  the  new  facts,  which  by  their  very  nature  were 
excluded  from  the  previous  history,  will  be  easily  under- 
stood in  the  light  of  my  former  expositions. 

The  ruins  of  ancient  Nippur  (comp.  pp.  i6o,  seq.,  305, 
seqq.)  are  divided  by  the  dry  bed  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil  (Che- 
bar)  into  an  eastern  and  western  section.  Both  are  nearly 
equal  in  size,  each  covering  an  area  of  about  ninety  acres  of 
land  (p.  305).  The  western  half  represents  the  remains 
of  the  city  proper,  the  eastern  half  the  large  complex  of  the 
temple  of  Bel,  generally  known  by  the  name  of  Ekur  (pp. 
464,  seq.).  Twenty-one  different  strata  can  be  distinguished 
in  the  mass  of  debris  which  constitutes  the  present  site 
of  Nuffar.  It  should  be  understood,  however,  that  these 
twenty-one  layers,  marking  as  many  different  phases  in  the 
history  of  Bel's  renowned  city,  by  no  means  occur  in  every 
section  of  the  ruins.  In  some  places  the  remains  of  the  sec- 
ond millennium  rest  immediately  on  the  top  of  pre-Sargonic 
Nippur,  in  others  the  two  are  separated  by  ten  to  fifteen 
feet  of  rubbish,  in  still  others  the  earliest  remains  appear 
almost  on  the  surface.  At  first  sight,  therefore,  it  would  seem 
evident  that  certain  parts  of  Nippur  must  have  been  in  ruins 
for  centuries,  while  others  were  occupied  by  houses  continu- 
ally. To  a  certain  degree  this  view  is  doubtless  correct.  But 
we  must  not  forget  that  our  knowledge  on  this  question  will 
alwavs  remain  more  or  less  defective.  For  on  the  other  hand 
we  know  positively  that  earlier  building  remains  were  fre- 
quentlv  razed  to  the  ground  by  later  generations,  often 
enough  for  no  other  reason  than  to  obtain  building  material, 


542 


EXPLORATIONS  IX  BIBLE  LANDS 


worked  clay  (pp.  493,  seq.),  as  well  as.  baked  bricks  (pp.  373, 
seq.,  376,  seq.,  389),  for  their  own  constructions  in  the  easiest 
and  cheapest  manner  possible. 

Apart  from  Bint  el-Amir,  which  is  considerably  higher 
than  the  rest  of  the  ruins  (pp.  160,  seq.),  the  mounds  of 
Nuffar  on  an  average  rise  thirty  to  seventy  feet  above  the 
present  plain  and  the  ruins  descend  from  one  to  twenty  feet 
below  it.  The  twenty-one  strata  or  historical  periods  re- 
presented by  these  ruins  may  naturally  be  grouped  together 
under  three  different  headings  briefly  designated  in  the  fol- 
lowing sketch  as  the  Sumerian  period,  the  Semitic  Babylo- 
nian period  and  the  post-Babylonian  period. 

a.  In  the  earliest  (Sumerian)  stratum  we  recognize  six 
phases  of  historical  development  by  means  of  the  different 
kinds  of  bricks  employed.  The  first  is  characterized  by  the 
entire  absence  of  baked  bricks,  and  the  exclusive  use  of 
adobes.  The  other  five  are  easily  distinguished  according 
to  the  different  forms  and  sizes  of  baked  bricks  subsequently 
adopted.   The  earliest  bricks  are  very  small,  flat  on  the  lower 


Pre-Sargonic  Bricks  in  their  Historical  Develooment 

and  strong] V  rounded  on  the  upper  side,  which  generallv 
also  bears  a  thumb-mark.  Thev  look  more  like  rubble  or 
quarrv  stones,  in  imitation  of  which  they  were  made  (Gen. 
11:3)  than  the  artificial  products  of  man  (p.  251).  Gradu- 
ally they  grow  larger  in  size  and  flatter  at  the  same  time. 


DURING   lOrn   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      543 


The  thumb-mark  ^  begins  to  disappear,  and  one,  two  or  more 

longitudinal  streaks  made  with  the  index  finger  or  by  draw- 
ing a  reed  leaf  over  the   clav "   come  into    use,    first   with 

a    thumb-mark    (comp. 

the   third    brick   in   the 

above  illustration),  later 

without  the  same.   None 

of  all   the  pre-Sargonic 

bricks  thus  far  excavated 

at    Nuffar  bears  an   in- 
scription.^    Wells     and 

drains    are    the    earliest 

constructions  tor  which 

these  baked  bricks  were 

required.    According;  to 

the     results      furnished 

by  our  excavations,  the 

bricks  are  generallv  laid 

in  a  peculiar  manner  in 

those  ancient  wells.  The 

architects  call  it  herring- 
bone fashion.  The  upper 

and  lower  three  rows  of 

bricks  seen  in  the  accompanvino;  cut  are  especially  indicative 
of  the  principle   followed    by    the    first  builders 
in  "the  land  of  Shinar."     It  is  interesting  to  ob- 
serve that  the  sign  used  in  Babylonian  writing  for 
J   "  brick  "  originally  represents  a  section  of  such 

a  well  in  which  the  bricks  are  laid  in  herring-bone  fashion. 
The  Sumerian  stratum  extending  from  the  virgin  soil  to  a 

point  about  five  to  ten  feet  above  the  ancient  plain  level  is 

■^  Sometimes  two  and  even  four  such  marks  occur. 

2  The  fibre  and  form  of  the  leaf  are  clearly  recognized  on  a  number  of 
bricks  now  in  the  archaeological  museum  of  the  U.  of  Pa. 
^  The  case  is  somewhat  different  at  Tello  ;  comp.  p.  251. 


Section  of  a  Pre-Sargonic  Well.      Bricks  laid  in 
Herring-bone  Fashion 


544  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

twenty  to  thirty-five  feet  high  in  the  temple  mound,  where 
the  pavement  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin  forms  an  important 
boundary  line.  It  is  characterized  by  scattered  ashes  mixed 
with  earth  or  well-defined  ash-beds  greatly  varying  in  size, 
bits  of  charcoal,  an  occasional  bone,  innumerable  potsherds 
often  colored  red  or  blackened  from  exposure  to  fire,  manv 
cracked  jars  found  in  different  positions,  a  few  of  them  in  a 
tolerable,  some  even  in  a  fine  state  of  preservation,  thousands 
of  thick  fragments  of  small  vases,  dishes  and  pointed  cups, 
broken  weapons,  damaged  seal  cvlinders,  personal  orna- 
ments in  stone,  shell,  copper  and  silver,  frequent  drains, 
wells,  and  abundant  remains  of  ruined  chambers  built  of 
adobes,  exceptionally  also  of  plano-convex  baked  bricks 
(comp.  especially  p.  456,  note  2).  In  other  words,  wherever 
we  reached  this  lowest  stratum  at  Nuffar  we  came  upon 
extensive  traces  of  pre-Sargonic  burials,  so  that  we  cannot 
avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  sacred  ground  around  the 
temple  of  Enlil  and  certain  districts  even  on  the  west  side 
of  the  Chebar  were  largely  used  as  a  cemetery,  or,  more 
exactly,  as  a  fire  necropolis  (pp.  456,  seq.),  by  the  earliest 
population  of  the  country.  Apart  from  the  court  and  gen- 
eral neighborhood  of  the  temple,  we  excavated  funeral  vases 
and  other  remains  illustrating  the  praxis  of  cremating  the 
dead  in  various  other  parts  of  the  ruins,  especially  in  the 
mounds  to  the  south  and  east  of  Bint  el-Amir  (p.  479), 
along  the  foot  of  the  outer  wall  (p.  487),  and  in  the  long 
ridge  marked  by  the  numbers  VI  and  VIII  on  the  plan 
of  the  ruins  (p.  305  ;   comp.  pp.  419,  seq.) 

A  small  ziggurrat  (p.  453),  the  foundation  of  the  north- 
east citv  gate  (pp.  493,  seqq.),  and  partly  explored  building 
remains  in  the  mounds  to  the  east  and  west  of  the  temple 
proper  are  the  onlv  witnesses  of  a  pre-Sargonic  "city  of 
the  living"  so  far  discovered  in  our  excavations  at  Nippur. 
In  view  of  the  enormous  amount  of  rubbish  covering  the 
earliest  strata  this  result  will  not  surprise  us.     Small  as  the 


DURING   19TH   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA    AND   BABYLONIA      545 

unearthed  remains  are,  they  suffice  to  show  that  in  pre-Sar- 
gonic  times  the  city  had  nearly  the  same  extent  as  in  the 
days  of  Ur-Gur  (about  2700  b.  c.)  or  Kadashman-l'urgu 
(about  1350  B.  c).  But  how  much  of  the  ground  was 
reserved  for  the  dead  and  how  much  for  the  Hving  cannot 
be  ascertained  for  many  years  to  come.  The  numerous 
single  pre-Sargonic  bricks,  the  remains  of  walls  and  other 
early  constructions  already  excavated,  together  with  several 
hundred  inscribed  clay  tablets  (pp.  388,  403,  seqq.),  objects 
of  art  (pp.  383,  seq.,  474,  seq.)  and  other  antiquities  [e.  g., 
pp.  485,  seqq.)  of  the  same  ancient  period,  and  the  frequent 
references  to  Nippur  in  the  earliest  inscriptions  from  other 
ruins,  allow  us  to  infer  that  the  earliest  city  must  already 
have  had  a  comparatively  large  population. 

The  period  of  transition  from  the  earliest  chapter  of 
Babylonian  history  to  the  age  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin, 
the  so-called  sixth  pre-Sargonic  period,  is  closely  connected 
at  Nuffar  with  the  appearance  of  the  first  square  bricks  made 
in  a  rectangular  mould.  In  general  it  probably  coincides 
with  the  time  of  Entemena  of  Lagash  (p.  251).  Bricks  of 
this  period  have  been  found  in  situ  in  large  numbers  at  low 
levels  on  both  sides  of  the  Shatt  en-Nil  (p.  535).  Though 
still  uninscribed,  they  are  readily  distinguished  from  other 
later  bricks  by  their  yellow  color  and  the  circumstance  that 
the  edge  of  the  upper  surface  is  somewhat  higher  than  its 
central  portion. 

b.  The  line  of  demarcation  between  the  Sumerian  and 
Semitic  periods  in  the  historv  of  Babylonia  cannot  be 
drawn  very  sharply.  Doubtless  centuries  of  commercial 
intercourse  and  peaceful  intermingling  between  the  early 
inhabitants  of  the  country  and  the  neighboring  Semitic  tribes 
preceded  the  final  conquest  of  the  Sumerians  and  the  subse- 
quent amalgamation  of  the  two  races.  Even  after  the  former 
had  lost  their  political  independence,  in  many  regards  no 
perceptible  change  seems  at  first  to  have  taken  place  in  the 


54G  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

life  of  the  people.  The  foreign  invaders  remained  in  the 
fertile  plain  and  became  the  docile  pupils  of  the  subdued 
nation.  They  learned  how  to  cultivate  the  soil  and  to  dig 
new  canals,  how  to  fortify  cities  and  to  erect  lofty  temples. 
They  adopted  and  further  developed  the  system  of  writing 
which  they  found  in  the  country,  and  they  made  themselves 
acquainted  with  the  literary  and  artistic  products,  and  the 
religious  and  cosmological  ideas  of  their  new  subjects.  At 
the  time  of  Sargon  and  Naram-SIn,  the  Semitic  element  is 
firmly  established  throughout  the  land  and  in  complete 
possession  of  the  ancient  Sumerian  civilization,  which  was 
successfully  directed  into  new  channels,  and  thus  stagnation 
was  prevented.  The  votive  objects  and  seal  cylinders  from 
the  period  of  the  Sargon  dynasty  represent  the  best  epoch 
and  the  highest  development  of  ancient  Babvlonian  art, 
while  the  inscribed  tablets  and  monuments  "are  character- 
ized by  an  exquisite  style  of  writing." 

In  the  western  portion  of  the  ruins  of  Nippur  the  change 
from  the  old  regime  to  the  new  one  is  scarcely  visible. 
Burials  were  made  there  for  some  time  afterwards  (pp. 
419,  seq.)^  as  they  had  been  before.  But  in  the  course  of 
time,  they  ceased  altogether,  and  the  site  of  the  ancient 
cemeterv  was  occupied  by  great  business  houses  and  the 
bazaars  of  the  citv  (pp.  413,  seqq.).  The  30,000  contracts 
and  account  lists  excavated  from  numerous  houses  along  the 
bank  of  the  Chebar  enable  us  to  trace  one  settlement  above 
another  from  the  fourth  millennium  down  to  the  time  of 
Artaxerxes  and  Darius,  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century. 

A  more  abrupt  and  radical  change  took  place  in  the  east- 
ern half  of  the  city.  The  burial  ground  around  the  zig- 
gurrat  was  levelled,  the  sacred  enclosure  extended,  and  the 
whole  temple  court  provided  with  a  solid  pavement  and  sur- 
rounded with  high  walls.  No  cremation  was  henceforth  per- 
mitted and  no  funeral  urn  deposited  anywhere  within  the 
precincts  of  Bel's  sanctuary  at  Nippur.    The  city  became  "  a 


DURING   lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      547 

pure  place  like  Eridu  "  (p.  467),  and  the  temple  an  exclu- 
sive place  of  worship  for  the  living.  It  preserved  this  char- 
acter for  over  3000  years,  until  Babylonia's  independence 
was  lost,  and  another  people  with  another  religion,  which  did 
not  know  of  the  ancient  gods  of  the  country,  established 
itself  for  a  few  centuries  on  the  ruined  site  of  Bel's  vener- 
able city. 

Notwithstanding  the  almost  continuous  occupation  of  the 
city  during  this  long  period  of  Babylonian  history,  nine 
strata  can  be  distinguished  more  or  less  accurately  in  the 
temple  court.  Six  of  these  do  not  offer  any  difficulty  at 
all,  as  they  are  separated  from  each  other  by  brick  pave- 
ments (pp.  376,  seqq.,  475,  seq.).  The  other  three  overlap 
the  next  lower  ones  to  a  certain  degree  in  the  excavated 
southeast  section  of  the  sacred  enclosure,  but  are  recognized 
more  clearly  in  other  parts  of  the  ruins.  The  debris  repre- 
senting these  different  strata,  with  their  nearly  3500  years 
of  history  (from  about  3800  to  350  b.  c),  and  including 
the  pavement  of  Naram-Sin,  measures  only  17  to  19  feet  in 
the  temple  court.  As  we  saw  above  (p.  391),  this  compar- 
atively small  accumulation  of  rubbish  within  such  a  long 
period  finds  its  natural  explanation  in  the  double  fact  that 
a  considerable  part  of  the  court  in  front  of  the  stage-tower 
and  temple  must  always  have  been  unoccupied  (p.  376), 
and  that  everv  ruler  who  laid  a  new  pavement  necessarily 
razed  the  crumbling  buildings  of  his  predecessors  around 
the  ziggurrat,  in  order  to  secure  an  even  surface  (p.  388) 
and  a  solid  foundation  for  his  own  constructions. 

The  six  periods  easily  determined  by  fragmentary  pave- 
ments of  baked  or  unbaked  brick  in  the  temple  court  are 
the  following  :  i.  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin,  about  3750  b.  c. 
(pp.  388,  seqq.,  497,  seqq.)  ;  2.  Lugalsurzu,  about  3500  b.  c. 
(p.  475,  seq.);  3.  Ur-Gur  and  his  dynasty,  about  2700 
B.C.  (pp.  378,  seqq.,  1,^1,,  seqq.)  \  4.  Ur-Ninib  of  (N)isin, 
about   2500    B.C.   (pp.    378,    380,   seq.)',    5.    Kadashman- 


548  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Turgu  of  the  Cassite  dynasty,  about  1350  b.  c.  (pp.376, 
seqq.) ;  6.  Ashurbanapal,  king  of  Assyria,  668-6'26  b.  c. 
(p.  376).  Besides  the  names  here  mentioned,  other  mem- 
bers of  the  same  dynasties  have  left  us  traces  of  their  activity 
in  Nippur  through  fragmentary  walls,  wells  and  houses 
containing  their  inscribed  bricks,  or  in  the  shape  of  votive 
offerings  bearing  their  names  and  titles.  In  the  zinctype 
facing  this  page  I  confine  myself  to  indicating  only  those 
five  pavements  which  could  be  traced  more  or  less  through 
the  whole  excavated  temple  court,  or  at  least  through  the 
larger  part  of  it. 

T^he  three  periods  referred  to  above  as  being  less  clearly 
defined  are,  i.  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon,^  about  2200 
B.  c.  (comp.  pp.  480,  seqq.)  ;  1.  the  dynasty  of  Pashe,"  about 
1 100  B.  c,  and  3.  the  neo-Babvlonian  and  Persian  period. 
They  are  represented  by  ruined  buildings  or  inscribed  doc- 
uments found  in  limited  numbers  in  their  respective  strata. 

According  to  the  evidence  furnished  by  the  trenches,  the 
temple  complex  as  a  whole  presented  verv  much  the  same 
picture  during  all  the  different  periods  of  its  long  and  inter- 
esting history.  Of  course  the  stage  tower  gradually  grew 
larger,  and  the  temple  at  its  side,  consequently  (p.  472) 
somewhat  smaller  in  the  latter  half  of  the  second  millennium. 
The  number  of  chapels,  shrines  and  other  houses  connected 
with  the  cult  of  Bel  and  his  large  retinue  of  minor  gods 
doubtless  also  varied  at  different  times,  since  Nippur,  as  the 
seat  of  "  the  kingdom  of  the  four  regions  of  the  world," 
more  than  any  other  city  in  the  country  reflected  the  politi- 

^  Including  Rim-Sin  of  Larsa,  whose  inscriptions  occur  in  the  same  gen- 
eral stratum.  For  the  present,  comp.  p.  408,  and  Hilprecht,  "  The  Bab. 
Exp.  of  the  U.  of  Pa.,"  series  A,  vol.   i,  part  2,  no.   128. 

^  Represented  by  several  fragmentary  boundary  stones  onlv  in  part  pub- 
lished (comp.  Hilprecht,  /.  c,  part  i,  pi.  27,  no.  80,  and  pi.  XII,  nos. 
32,  seg.),  a  fine  unpublished  boundary  stone  ot  Nebuchadrezzar  I.  with  six 
columns  of  writing,  and  a  few  dated  documents  (p.  519). 


DURING  19rn  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      549 


Section  of  the  Stage-Tower  and  the  Adjoining  Southeast  Court 

Restored  iind  designed  by  Hilprecht,  drawn  by  Ftsher 

A-B-P-L.    Ashurh'anapal.       N-S.    Naram-Sir,.       U-G.     Ur-Gur.       P.    Pa-ve- 
ment.     ^.    Baked  Brick.      =  .    Pairment  of  two  layers  of  bricks.      Measure- 
ments gi-ven  in  feet. 


550  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

cal  ups  and  downs  of  Babylonia.  We  know  even  now  on 
the  basis  of  our  latest  excavations  that  the  outer  wall  of  the 
temple  constructed  by  Naram-Sin  followed  a  slightly  differ- 
ent course  from  that  of  Ur-Gur  and  all  the  subsequent  rulers 
(pp.  497,  seqq.).  And  it  is  likewise  certain  that  the  temple 
library  of  the  period  antedating  the  Elamitic  invasion  was 
more  important  and  probably  also  of  greater  extent  than  that 
of  the  time  of  Ashurbanapal  (pp.  511,  seqq.).  But  not- 
withstanding these  and  other  distinctive  features  which  the 
temple  presented  in  different  centuries,  and  which  easily 
could  be  multiplied,  the  general  plan  and  disposition  of  the 
sanctuary  changed  but  little.  In  accordance  with  the  con- 
servative character  of  the  Babylonian  religion,  the  space 
enclosed  by  the  walls  Imgur-Marduk  and  Nimit-Marduk^ 
or  whatever  their  former  names  may  have  been,  remained 
nearly  stationary,  and  the  principal  buildings  erected  upon 
it  practically  occupied  the  same  position  at  the  time  of  Sar- 
gon  I.  and  in  the  days  of  Artaxerxes  I.  and  Darius  II. 

Roughlv  speaking,  the  entire  area  covered  with  the  ruins 
of  the  temple  complex  (comp.  the  plan  on  page  305)  forms 
a  trapezoid,  the  longest  side  of  which  runs  parallel  with  the 
northeast  bank  of  the  Chebar.  By  disregarding  the  trian- 
gular library  mound  in  the  south,  which  never  seems  to 
have  been  included  in  the  walled  territory,  we  obtain  a  par- 
allelogram with  nearly  equal  sides,  each  measuring  about  2700 
feet.  Except  on  the  southwest  side,  where  the  waters  of  the 
great  canal,  probably  lined  by  a  dam  or  quay,  afforded  a  suffi- 
cient protection,  this  large  space  was  enclosed  by  a  huge  wall 
25  to  40  feet  thick  (pp.  498,  seqq.).,  and  at  least  25  feet  high 
(p.  492).  Since  the  government  of  Ur-Gur  this  so-called 
outer  wall  of  the  city  was  adorned  with  buttresses  (p.  498), 
W'hile  at  all  times,  as  far  as  we  can  determine  at  present,  it 
was  strengthened  by  a  number  of  well-drained  bastions  (pp. 
494,  496,  503),  and  by  a  deep  moat  which  ran  along  its 
entire  base  (p.  495),  forming   a  regular  navigable  canal  on 


DURING  19'u  CENTXTRY:  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA     551 

the  southeast  side,  where  the  principal  entrance  of  the  temple 
must  be  looked  for.  A  large  gate  was  discovered  also  in 
the  middle  of  the  northeast  wall,  through  which  the  main 
road  from  the  east  passed  behind  the  ziggurraty  leading  to  a 
bridge  over  the  Chebar  into  the  city  proper  (pp.  493,  seqq.). 

The  northwest  half  of  this  fortified  enclosure  consisted 
of  a  large  open  court,  along  the  northeast  edge  of  which 
tradesmen  and  handicraftsmen  had  their  shops  (pp.  488, 
seq.)^  and  of  a  group  of  substantial  buildings  near  the  canal 
which  probably  represent  the  outhouses,  servants'  quarters 
and  magazines  of  the  temple.  The  mounds  between  the 
"ziggurrat  and  the  Chebar,  and  between  the  temple  and  the 
northeast  wall,  have  not  yet  been  examined  sufficiently  to 
enable  us  to  ascertain  their  contents  with  anv  degree  of  cer- 
tainty. A  plausible  theory  with  regard  to  the  possible 
character  of  the  doubtless  imposing  building  which  lies 
buried  under  the  enormous  mass  of  debris  in  the  east  cor- 
ner of  the  outer  wall  was  formulated  on  p.  485,  above. 

The  accompanying  zinctype,  prepared  by  Mr.  Fisher  on 
the  basis  of  my  interpretation  of  the  excavated  ruins  (p. 
552),  may  serve  as  a  supplement  to  my  previous  discussion 
(pp.  368,  seqq.^  469,  seqq.,  477,  seqq.).  Viewed  in  the  light 
of  a  first  attempt  on  our  part  to  restore  the  principal  features 
of  the  most  renowned  sanctuary  of  Babylonia  in  accordance 
with  real  facts,  this  sketch  will  help  the  reader  to  gain  a  clearer 
conception  of  the  general  plan  and  disposition  of  the  temple 
ot  Bel  during  the  last  three  thousand  years  of  its  remark- 
able history.  A  complete  list  of  measurements  of  all  the 
examined  building  remains,  photographs  and  accurate  draw- 
ings illustrating  the  necessary  architectural  details,  my  rea- 
sons for  assuming  a  ziggurrat  of  five  stages,  and  a  full  treat- 
ment of  all  such  other  questions  as  by  their  technical  nature 
had  to  be  excluded  from  the  present  pages,  will  be  found  in 
a  special  monograph  entitled  "  Ekur,  the  Temple  of  Bel  at 

Nippur."      For  the  present  it  may  suffice  to  repeat  that  the 
41 


552 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


Ekur,  the  Temple  of  Bel  at  Nippur 

First  attempt  at  a  restoration  by  Hilprccht  and  Fisher 

I.    Stage-toiver  ivith   shrine  on   the  top.      2.     The    temple  proper,     j.    "  House  for  honey , 

cream    and  ivine.''''      ^.     "  Place  of   the    delight   of   Bur-Sin.''''     ^.    Inner  ivall    {^Imgur- 

Marduk).      6.    Outer  wall  [Nimit-Marduk). 

temple  proper  consisted  of  two  courts  (pp.  478,  seq.)  and  to 
emphasize  that  the  exact  size  of  the  inner  court  containing  the 
stage-tower  and  the  house  of  Bel  at  its  side  cannot  be  given, 
before  the  Parthian  fortress  covering  the  Babylonian  ruins 
has  been  removed  completely.  As  the  latter  construction, 
however,  on  the  whole  followed  the  outline  of  the  older  en- 
closure pretty  accurately,  the  measurements  quoted  in  con- 


DURING  19Tti  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      553 

nection  with  the  Parthian  fortress  can  he  used  in  a  general 
way  also  to  restore  the  dimensions  of  the  inner  court  of 
the  ancient  temple  beneath  it.  The  ziggurrat,  the  most 
conspicuous  part  of  the  whole  complex,  rose  highest  and 
was  largest  at  the  time  of  Ashurbanapal.  It  then  covered 
an  area  forming  a  rectangular  parallelogram,  the  two  sides 
of  which  measured  190  and  128  feet  respectively.  The 
outer  temple  court,  probably  studded  with  the  chapels  of 
all  the  different  gods  worshipped  at  Nippur  (p.  480),  appears 
to  have  been  nearly  square,  each  side  being  about  260  feet 
long. 

c.  Babylonia's  independence  was  lost  forever  when  the 
Persian  ruler  removed  the  golden  image  of  Marduk  from 
his  famous  sanctuary  on  the  Euphrates.  At  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century  it  seemed  for  a  little  while  as  if  the  ancient 
cult  would  be  revived  with  even  greater  magnificence  than 
at  the  time  of  Hammurabi  and  Nebuchadrezzar.  The  ruined 
stages  of  Etemenanki,  which  the  destroyer  of  Jerusalem  "  had 
raised  like  a  mountain  "  in  honor  of  Bel,  were  torn  down 
by  foreign  soldiers  to  secure  a  solid  foundation  for  the  more 
sumptuous    structure  of  their  own  king.^     Alexander  the 

^  In  consequence  of  this  historical  fact  travellers  and  explorers  have 
hitherto  searched  in  vain  for  the  remains  of  the  <' tower  ot  Babel."  No- 
thing but  the  lowest  foundations  of  the  famous  structure  will  ev^er  be  dis- 
covered. For  modern  Arab  brick-diggers  completed  the  work  of  demolition 
which  Alexander's  soldiers  had  begun  2000  years  ago.  In  connection  with 
their  pernicious  digging  they  discovered  the  building  records  of  Nabopolassar 
and  Nebuchadrezzar  in  their  original  niches.  A  fine  bomb-shaped  clay  cone 
of  the  first-mentioned  monarch  and  fragments  of  three  duplicate  cylinders  ot 
his  son  were  obtained  from  them  more  than  twelve  years  ago  for  the  Archaeo- 
logical Museum  of  the  U.  of  Pa.  The  place  where  the  stage- tower  once 
stood  can  be  recognized  even  now  with  absolute  certainty  from  the  peculiar 
form  of  the  depression  which  the  extracted  bricks  have  left  in  the  soil.  The 
Arabs  call  it  es-sahan,  "  the  bowl."  Unlike  the  stage-tower  of  Nippur  the 
ground-plan  of  Etemeiuviki  seems  to  have  formed  a  square.  A  curious  de- 
pression extending  from  the  centre  of  its  southeast  side  marks  the  entrance  ot  the 
ancient  tower  of  Babylon,  in  the  same  way  as  that  of  Nippur  is  indicated  in 


554  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Great  had  returned  from  India  to  Babylon,  with  the  inten- 
tion of  residing  in  this  city,  as  the  metropoHs  of  his  vast  em- 
pire. Inspired  with  new  and  ambitious  plans,  the  execu- 
tion of  which  should  establish  the  glory  of  his  name  among 
the  nations  forever,  he  was  about  to  rebuild  "  the  tower  of 
Babel  "  and  "  to  cause  its  summit  to  rival  the  heavens  " 
again,  when  suddenly  he  was  carried  away  by  an  untimely 
death  in  the  vigor  of  his  manhood.  One  involuntarily  thinks 
of  Gen.  11:5  (and  8)  :  "  And  the  Lord  came  down  to  see 
the  city  and  the  tower  which  the  children  of  men  builded." 
Proclaimed  as  a  god  in  Egypt,  Alexander  shared  the  fate 
of  the  supreme  god  of  his  capital  on  the  Euphrates.  Not 
far  from  "the  sepulchral  mound  of  Bel"  (pp.  459,  seqq.), 
which  his  soldiers  had  razed  to  the  ground,  the  uncon- 
quered  hero  succumbed  to  the  Babylonian  fever  in  the 
palace  of  Nebuchadrezzar. 

The  enormous  empire  which  the  great  Macedonian  had 
founded  was  divided  among  his  principal  generals.  Seleucia 
on  the  Tigris  took  the  place  of  Babylon  under  the  new 
dynasty.  Insignificant  traces  of  this  period  have  been  dis- 
covered also  at  Nippur.  But  the  rich  province  was  soon 
lost  by  Alexander's  heirs  to  more  powerful  invaders.  About 
a  hundred  years  after  the  great  king's  death  we  find  the 
Parthians  in  possession  of  the  entire  country,  erecting  their 
castles  and  palaces  with  ancient  material  on  all  the  im- 
portant ruins  of  Shumer  and  Akkad  (pp.  159,  226,  seqq., 
368,  seq.).  The  stage-tower  of  Nippur  was  remodelled  for 
military  purposes  (pp.  501,  seq.),  and  a  strongly  fortified 
palace  arose  on  the  site  of  the  temple  of  Bel  (see  p.  555). 

the  light-shaded  centre  of  the  ground-plan  of  the  "  Parthian  Palace  built  over 
the  Ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Bel  "  (p.  559,  below).  The  peculiar  depression 
marking  the  ancient  site  of  the  •'  tower  of  Babel"  is  reproduced  accurately 
in  the  topographical  map  of  "  Tell  Amran,"  published  bv  the  German  Orient 
Society.  Comp.  also  Bruno  Meissner,  l^on  Btiiy/o/i  nach  den  Ruinen  von 
Htra  und  Huarnaq,  Leipzig,  1901,  p.   i. 


DURING  lO'JJ  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA      555 

For  the  last  time  a  certain  prosperity  pervades  the  coun- 
try, and  all  the  mounds  of  Nippur  are  covered  with  flour- 
ishing Parthian  settlements  (pp.  309,  313,  3-7,  secjq.^  334> 
secjq.^ }66, seqq.^/\.lT^^seqq.).  But  compared  with  the  ancient 
civilization  and  wealth  of  the  people,  the  period  of  the  Par- 
thian rule  is  a  period  of  deterioration  and  decay.  The  rest- 
ing places  of  the  dead  begin  to  occur  side  by  side  with  the 
residences  of  the  living.^  The  city  of  Bel  rapidly  becomes 
again  what  it  had  been  at  the  beginning  of  its  long  and 
varied  history  —  a  vast  cemetery. 

With  the  rise  of  the  Sassanian  dynasty  (a.  d.  226-643) 
the  importance  of  the  city  is  gone.  The  magnificent  pal- 
ace grouped  around  the  ziggurrat  as  a  citadel  lies  in  ruins; 
no  imposing  new  building  is  henceforth  erected  within  the 


J 

1 

T 

• 

H 

m 

\  ^ 

. — ^ 

ll 

1 

H 

ll 

^^^^^p 

1                  1      ~ 

'^^^^m    Hum 

d/     Inr 

Temple 

s-^ 

..  m 

Outer  court 

;  ic 

Servants.    (jcttiJ 

.    -^— J— ^ 

Citadel 

' 

,           fdlace 

,u^ 

f 

Section  through  the  Parthian  Fortress  covering  the  Temple  of  Bel,  looking  southwest 
Restored  and  liraivn  by  Fisher 

precincts  of  ancient  Nippur.  Of  course  small  mud  houses 
and  insignificant  shops  continue  to  occupy  the  most  pro- 
minent parts  of  the  high-towering  ruins  for  cejituries  longer. 
A  great  number  of  Hebrew,  Mandean  and  Syriac  bowls  (pp. 
326,  337,  447,  seq.)^  the  wooden   box  of  a  Jewish  scribe 

^  We  excavated  hundreds  of  tombs  from  the  four  hundred  years  when  the 
Arsacide  dynasty  held  sway  over  Babylonia  (about  250  b.  c.  to  a.  d.  226) 
in  the  slopes  of  the  mounds  and  under  the  floors  of  the  houses  of  the  later 
inhabitants. 


556  EXPLORATIOXS  IX   BIBLE  LAXDS 

containing  his  pen-holder  and  inkstand  and  a  little  scrap  of 
crumbling  parchment  inscribed  with  a  few  Hebrew  charac- 
ters, large  quantities  of  late  pottery  and  several  rotten  bags 
filled  with  Kufic  silver  and  copper  coins  were  gathered  by 
our  different  expeditions  in  the  upper  stratum  of  Nuffar. 
All  these  antiquities  show  that  the  city  existed  in  some  form 
or  other  even  as  late  as  the  early  Arabic  period,  and  that 
the  Jewish  element  was  strongly  represented  among  its  in- 
habitants. About  A.  D.  looo  or  soon  afterwards  the  site 
must  have  been  abandoned  definitely.  Arabic  historians 
occasionally  refer  to  it.  But  the  latest  inscribed  antiquities 
thus  far  excavated  are  thin  silver  coins  of  Mervan  ibn  Mo- 
hammed, the  last  'Omayyade  caliph  (744-749),  and  others 
of  the  first  'Abbaside  caliphs  of  Baghdad,  among  them 
Harun  ar-Rashid  (786-809  a.  d.),  the  well-known  con- 
temporary of  Charlemagne,  and  several  of  his  less  famous 
successors  in  the  ninth  century.^ 

In  examining  the  post-Babylonian  ruins  of  Nuffar,  which 
represent  about  twelve  hundred  years  of  strange  history,  we 
distinguished  six  different  periods.  Two  of  them,  however, 
can  be  recognized  with  certainty  only  in  the  large  temple 
area.  Beginning  at  the  surface  of  the  mounds,  we  first  come 
upon  the  extensive  remains  of  the  early  Arabic  period,  eas- 
ily determined  by  low  mud  houses  containing  vessels  and 
potsherds,  Hebrew  Mandean  and  Syriac  incantation  bowls, 
Kufic  coins,  shallow  graves,  etc.  (pp.  313,  337).  Next  we 
reach  the  numerous  Sassanian  burials,  characterized  by  cer- 
tain forms  of  coflins  and  different  kinds  of  pottery  drains 
which  often  descend  far  into  the  real  Babylonian  strata 
below,  by  rude  seals  badly  engraved  with  human  figures, 
animals,  plants  and  the  like  (p.  326),  and  by  many  minor 
antiquities.     The  layers  then  following   are   filled  with  the 

^  According  to  information  from  Halil  Bey,  Director  of  the  Imperial  Otto- 
man Museum,  who  at  my  request  i^indly  examined  all  our  excavated  Arabic 
coins,  as  far  as  they  had  then  been  cleaned. 


DURING  19'"  CENTURY .   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA     557 

typical  objects  of  the  Hellenistic  and  Roman  age  (pp.  330, 
seq.),  including  a  number  of  vaulted  tombs  and  other  graves. 
They  represent  three  different  periods  ot  occupancy  during 
the  Parthian  rule  (pp.  331,  seq.,  365,  seq.).  A  huge  Par- 
thian fortress  covers  the  ruins  of  the  temple  of  Bel.  The 
doors  of  the  excavated  houses  and  corridors  had  been  walled 
up  from  below  once  or  twice,  as  can  still  be  recognized  from 
the  central  column  of  the  debris  seen  in  the  frontispiece  and 
the  illustration  facing  p.  453.  "  All  of  the  doors,  as  we 
found  them,  were  at  least  five  to  six  feet  and  a  half  above 
the  proper  level  of  the  floors."  The  later  inhabitants  of 
Nippur  very  evidently  experienced  something  similar  to  that 
which  Nebuchadrezzar  describes  in  connection  with  his  palace 
and  the  street  of  procession  at  Babylon.  The  streets  and 
passageways,  which  originally  were  on  a  level  with  the  floors 
of  the  rooms,  "  filled  up  with  debris  and  mud  washed  down 
from  the  walls  and  rooms  of  the  houses."  It  consequently 
became  necessary  for  the  inhabitants  "  to  descend  from  the 
street  level  to  the  house  doors  by  steps,"  which  still  exist  in 
the  case  of  two  of  the  doors  directly  in  front  of  the  zig- 
gurrat.  This  circumstance  doubtless  rendered  the  rooms 
comparatively  cool  during  the  summer.  But  during  the 
rainy  season  these  serdabs^  often  enough  must  have  looked 
more  like  cisterns  than  human  habitations.  Those  who 
occupied  them  were  therefore  forced  from  time  to  "  time  to 
fill  up  the  houses  within  to  the  level  of  the  street,  block  up 
the  old  doorways  and  cut  new  ones,  build  an  addition  on 
the  walls,  and  raise  the  roofs  "  correspondingly." 

Some  six  to  eight  feet  below  the  rooms  of  the  last  Par- 
thian palace  there  were  remains  of  an  earlier  post-Babylo- 
nian fortress,  which  probably  belonged  to  the  Seleucidan 
period  (about  320-250  a.  d.).  As  previouslv  stated  (pp. 
503,  seq.)^  apart  from  the  greater  depth  of  their  level,  these 
ruins  can  be  distinguished  easily  from  those  Iving  above 
*  Comp.  p.  225,  above.      ^  Comp.  Peters,  "Nippur,"  pp.   155,  seq. 


558  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

them  by  the  different  quality  and  the  smaller  size  of  their 
bricks  and  by  the  direction  of  their  walls/  Arsacide  coins, 
commonly  found  in  the  upper  layers  (p.  327),  are  wholly 
absent  from  these  lower  rooms. 

It  will  have  become  apparent  from  our  brief  sketch  of 
the  post-Babylonian  history  of  Nippur  that  the  only  build- 
ing remains  deserving  our  special  attention  in  this  con- 
nection are  those  of  the  Parthian  period.  They  occur 
practically  on  all  the  prominent  mounds  ot  the  ancient 
citv,  and  many  years  more  of  methodical  excavation  are 
therefore  required  in  the  upper  strata  of  Nuffar  before  we 
shall  be  able  to  understand  the  topography  of  this  last 
important  settlement  in  the  least  adequately.  All  that  we 
can  do  at  present  is  to  illustrate  the  general  character  of  the 
larger  buildings  of  this  period  by  the  example  of  the  two 
Parthian  palaces  already  excavated.  Their  plan  and  dispo- 
sition were  ascertained  chiefly  through  the  labors  of  the 
fourth  expedition. 

The  more  imposing  of  the  two  structures  occupies  the 
central  part  of  the  temple  area.  A  glance  at  the  plan  op- 
posite this  page  will  convince  us  that  the  Parthian  fortress, 
like  the  Babylonian  temple  beneath  it,  consisted  of  two 
courts.  They  did  not  communicate  with  one  another,  ex- 
cept perhaps  bv  means  of  a  large  staircase,  the  remains  of 
which  seem  to  have  perished.  The  southeast  court  not  being 
explored  vet,  we  confine  ourselves  to  setting  forth  the  prin- 
cipal features  of  the  great  palace  grouped  around  the  re- 
modelled ziggurrat.  The  huge  building  comprised  an  area 
no  doubt  intended  to  be  rectangular.  The  entire  space  was 
surrounded  by  a  double  wall  of  colossal  proportions.  It 
varied  considerablv  in  thickness,  and  was  about  560  feet 
long  on  its  southeast  side.  The  north  corner  of  this  vast 
enclosure  has  not  yet  been  determined,  while  its  west  cor- 
ner was  found  to  be  washed  away  by  the  action  of  rain  water 

^  Indicated  by  the  number  I  in  cut  on  opposite  page. 


DURING   I'J'ii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      559 


Parthian  Palace  built  over  the  Ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Bel 
Restored  by  Hilprecht,  suweyed  atui  draivn  bf  Ftsher  and  Geere 

I.  Remains  of  an  earlier,  probably  Seleucidan  building,  about  JOO  B.  C.  Tie  rest  represents  the 
remains  of  a  Parthian  palace,  grouped  around  the  %i^gurrat  as  a  citadel  {^about  2^0  B.  C.  to  200 
A.  D.).  A.  Public  reception  rooms  and  pri-vate  apartments  for  the  prince  and  his  officers  [partly 
unexca-vated).  B.  Harem  (largely  unexcaiiated).  C.  Domestic  quarters,  store-rooms,  barracks, 
etc.  1  (on  the  ziggurrat).  The  onlyivell  of  the  palace.  2.  Street  separating  the  palace  proper 
from  the  domestic  quarters.      y.    Room  ii:ith  a  tomb  beneath. 


560  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

cutting  a  deep  guUey  into  the  ruins.  The  bricks  generally- 
used  in  all  the  constructions  of  the  fortress  are  large,  almost 
square  blocks  of  adobe  (pp.  334,  365,  503). 

The  southeast  side  has  been  examined  more  carefully 
than  the  rest  of  the  building.  The  ruined  outer  wall,  when 
excavated,  still  rose  to  the  height  of  over  sixty  feet  and  was 
more  than  thirty  feet  thick  at  its  top,  and  almost  forty  feet 
at  its  base,  which  besides  was  cased  with  baked  bricks  taken 
from  various  earlier  ruins.  This  wall  was  strengthened  by 
two  huge  buttresses  at  the  corners,  and  by  two  smaller  ones 
erected  at  equal  distances  between  the  former.  Along  the 
summit  of  three  of  the  outer  walls  was  a  series  of  rooms 
at  uneven  distances  and  of  different  sizes.  Most  of  them, 
entered  by  doors  from  the  enclosed  yard  below,  apparently 
served  as  barracks  for  the  soldiers.  Others  were  accessible 
only  from  above,  and  must  have  been  used  as  prisons  or 
magazines.  The  outer  northeast  wall  in  reality  consisted  of 
two  separate  walls,  the  space  between  them  being  filled  in 
with  mud  and  debris. 

Along  the  inner  face  of  the  southeast  wall  ran  a  corri- 
dor or  passagewav  over  twenty-four  feet  wide.  Beyond  it 
was  an  inner  wall  relieved  bv  two  buttresses  and  (probably) 
three  solid  round  towers,  each  of  which  was  about  thirty  feet 
in  diameter  and  crowned  with  a  parapet.  The  large  open 
space  thus  strongly  fortified  was  occupied  with  a  great  many 
rooms  and  corridors,  more  or  less  connected  with  each  other 
and  evidently  forming  an  organic  whole.  They  w^ere  gen- 
erally stuccoed  with  a  plaster,  and  frequently  tinted  in  green, 
pink,  and  yellow  colors.  Several  of  them  had  a  window 
or  ventilator  of  baked  bricks  high  up  in  one  of  the  walls, 
while  drainage  was  often  effected  by  an  opening  under  the 
threshold  of  the  door  or  through  the  solid  wall  of  the 
house.  In  one  case  a  large  perforated  vase  was  sunk  below 
the  floor  of  stamped  earth  in  the  north  corner  of  the 
room. 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      561 

The  north  section  of  the  vast  complex  was  set  apart  for 
a  number  of  fine  large  rooms.  Two  of  them/  surrounded 
on  all  sides  by  spacious  corridors,  were  composed  of  double 
walls  with  an  air  space  between  them,  scarcely  wide  enough 
to  admit  of  the  passage  of  an  adult.  Similar  passageways 
ran  around  a  few  other  rooms  in  the  southeast  wall  of  the 
fortress."  The  size  of  these  chambers  and  the  greater  care 
with  which  the  whole  quarter  evidently  had  been  planned 
and  constructed  suggested  their  use  as  public  reception  halls 
adjoined  by  the  private  chambers  of  the  prince  or  governor 
and  his  officers.  As  practically  only  a  narrow  room  or 
corridor  connected  this  wing  of  the  palace  with  the  west 
section,  which  to  a  large  extent  is  still  unexplored,  we 
may  assume  with  a  reasonable  degree  of  probability  that  the 
latter  was  reserved  for  the  harem.  No  regular  gate  having 
been  found  in  the  south  and  east  parts  of  the  enclosure, 
it  follows  almost  with  certainty  that  the  principal  entrance 
of  the  castle  must  exist  somewhere  near  the  unexcavated 
north  corner  of  the  large  structure. 

From  many  characteristic  objects  discovered  (pp.  330, 
26^)  we  know  that  the  kitchens,  storerooms,  servants'  quar- 
ters, etc.,  were  located  in  the  southeast  section  of  the 
building.  A  narrow  street  running  parallel  with  the  prin- 
cipal facade  of  the  stage-tower  separated  them  from  the 
palace  proper.  In  the  middle  of  this  unpaved  street  was  a 
well-made  gutter  of  burned  bricks,  into  which  the  drains  of 
the  adjoining  rooms  discharged  their  contents. 

Out  of  the  midst  of  all  these  chambers  and  corridors 
rose  the  stage-tower  as  an  almost  impregnable  bulwark.  It 
served  as  a  citadel,  on  the  top  of  which  the  garrison  and  in- 
habitants of  the  palace  would  find  refuge  even  after  the  lower 
parts  of  the  fortress  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 
The  infinite  toil  with  which   the   only   well   of  the  whole 

'  They  measure  28  by  4 1  and  21  by  22^/^  feet  respectively. 
*  Indicated  in  the  cut,  p.  559.      Comp.  p.  246. 


562  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

enclosure  must  have  been  cut  through  the  core  of  the  zig- 
gurrat  to  the  water  level,  and  the  great  care  manifested  in 
enlarging  and  strengthening  the  Babylonian  stage-tower  by 
four  irregular  buttresses,  projecting  like  so  many  gigantic 
wings  from  the  centres  of  the  four  sides,  indicated  suffi- 
ciently what  strategic  importance  the  Parthian  rulers  at- 
tached to  this  part  of  their  palace.  The  peculiar  cruciform 
shape  of  the  massive  building  was  originally  suggested  by 
the  ancient  entrance  or  causeway  of  the  tower  (on  its  south- 
east side).  The  first  buttress-like  additions  to  the  ziggur- 
rat  accordingly  were  not  much  wider  than  the  latter.  As 
they  were  built  of  the  same  kind  of  bricks  which  charac- 
terizes the  remains  of  the  earlier  castle,^  they  must  belong 
to  the  Seleucidan  period.  Under  the  Parthian  rulers  these 
arms,  like  the  rest  of  the  structure,  were  broadened  consid- 
erably." At  the  same  time  the  ruined  stages  were  trimmed 
and  overbuilt  with  large  crude  bricks,  thus  making  an  im- 
mense platform  rising  no  less  than  twenty-five  to  thirty  feet 
above  the  rest  of  the  fortress.  A  second  stage  rose  like  a 
huge  watch-tower  from  the  centre  of  the  first.  To  judge 
from  the  height  of  Bint  el-x-\mir  as  we  first  saw  it,  this  cannot 
have  been  lower  than  twenty  feet.  Both  stages  were  natu- 
rally surrounded  by  a  parapet  to  afford  the  besieged  garri- 
son sufficient  protection  against  the  weapons  ot  its  enemies. 
In  times  of  peace  this  elevated  gallery,  with  its  superb  view 
over  the  endless  plains,  must  have  been  a  favorite  place  of 
rest  for  the  residents  of  the  palace,  where  they  enjoyed  a 
fresh  breeze  and  doubtless  spent  their  nights  during  the 
hottest  months  of  the  year. 

The  fortified  palace  with  which  we  have  occupied  our- 
selves cannot  be  considered  as  typical  for  the  architecture 
of  the  Parthian  period  ;    for  the  size  and  general  plan  of 

^  Marked  /  in  the  cut,  p.  559. 

-  They  were  from  45  to  63  feet  wide,  and  projected  30  to  50  feet  into  the 
court  from  the  Babylonian  tower. 


DURING  W'/i   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   HAHYLONIA      563 

the  vast  structure  were  largely  determined  by  the  ruined 
tower  and  walls  of  the  Babylonian  temple  beneath,  it  was 
different  with  regard  to  the  much  smaller  palace  on  the  west 


Section  through  the  Small  Parthian  Palace  on  West  Side  of  the  Chebar,  looking  Northeast 
Restored  and  draivn  by  Fis/ier 

side  of  the  Chebar,  which  belongs  to  the  third  or  second  cen- 
tury preceding  our  era.  The  material  of  which  it  consists  is 
mostly  crude  brick,  of  size,  shape  and  texture  similar  to  that 
forming  the  core  of  the  fortress  on  the  opposite  bank  of 
the  canal.  To  speak  more  exactly,  the  adobes  of  the  west 
palace  are  in  size  between  the  bricks  of  the  earlier  and  those 
of  the  later  fortress,  their  average  dimensions  being  12  by  12 
by  7 14  inches.  Like  the  latter  they  are  made  of  clay  obtained 
from  the  breaking  up  of  older  material.  That  the  smaller 
building  cannot  be  older  than  the  date  just  assigned  to  it, 
and  possibly  is  somewhat  younger,  follows  with  necessity 
from  a  small  thick  copper  coin  discovered  in  one  of  the 
bricks.  Much  corroded  as  it  was,  it  could  be  assigned  with 
a  reasonable  degree  of  certainty  to  one  of  the  rulers  of  the 
Arsacide  dynasty.  A  number  of  stone  seals  engraved  with 
animals  —  among  them  an  agate  ring  showing  a  fish, — 
which  were  taken  from  the  floor  level  in  different  parts  of 
the  building,  afforded  additional  proof  to  my  theory  as  to 
the  late  origin  of  the  structure. 

The   absolutely   un-Babylonian    character  of  the   palace 


564  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

becomes  evident  also  from  an  examination  of  its  ground- 
plan  and  a  study  of  its  architectural  details.  The  clear 
and  regular  division  of  the  entire  building,  the  methodical 
grouping  of  its  rooms  around  two  open  courts,  the  liberal 
employment  of  columns  as  a  decorative  element,  a  certain 
refinement  and  beauty  with  regard  to  proportion,  the  very 
apparent  aiming  at  unitv,  with  due  consideration  of  con- 
venience, are  characteristic  features  of  the  ancient  Greek 
houses  on  Delos  rather  than  of  those  known  from  ancient 
Babylonia.  The  building  was  intended  to  be  square,  each 
side  measuring  about  170  feet.^  Its  foundation  was  laid  upon 
the  ruins  of  the  early  city  more  than  forty-two  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  plain.  In  accordance  with  a  well-known 
Babylonian  custom,  its  four  corners  pointed  approximately 
to  the  four  cardinal  points.  As  the  house  stood  upon  the 
outskirts  of  a  mound  bordering  the  Shatt  en-Nil,^  the  east 
corner  of  the  structure  is  almost  completely  washed  away. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  building  had  but  one 
entrance,  which  was  situated  nearly  in  the  centre  of  the 
northwest  fa9ade.  It  consisted  of  an  elaborately  finished 
doorway  and  porch,  reached  by  two  steps  from  the  street. 
As  there  is  undeniable  evidence  that  the  southwest  and 
southeast  sides  of  the  palace  were  originally  broken  up  by  a 
system  of  shallow  buttresses,  we  may  assume  that  the  ex- 
terior surface  of  the  badly  damaged  northwest  wall  was 
decorated  with  similar  panels  or  recessings.  The  north- 
east side,  however,  which  faced  the  river,  seems  to  have 
been  left  without  any  ornamentation.  "  The  pilasters  on 
either  side  of  the  doorway  and  the  columns  of  the  court- 
yards were  stuccoed,"  ^  while  the  rest  of  the  building  was 
covered  with  a  mud  plaster. 

^  More  exactly  the  northwest  side  measured  174,  the  northeast  168^, 
the  southwest  170,  the  southeast  172?^  feet. 

^  Comp.  the  plan  of  the  ruins  on  p.  305. 

'  The  quotations  in  this  and  the  following  lines  are  from  Fisher's  and 
Geere's  report  on  the  building. 


DURING   lOTii  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      565 

The  walls  of  the  house  varied  in  thickness  from  three 
feet  to  eight  feet  and  a  half  From  fragments  of  pavements 
found  in  some  of  the  rooms  we  may  infer  that  the  floors  of 
the  principal  apartments  at  least  were  of  baked  brick.  In 
the  construction  of  steps,  pillars,  thresholds,  fireplaces,  beds 
and  the  like  the  same  material  was  used,  while  the  open 
courtyards  were  paved  with  unbaked  bricks.  The  floor  of 
the  bathroom  was  covered  with  bitumen.  As  the  many 
charred  pieces  of  wood  indicated  sufficiently,  the  roof  of  the 
building  consisted  of  palm  logs,  matting  and  earthc  "  We 
may  safely  assert  that  there  was  no  second  story  to  the 
building."  The  doors  were  made  of  mulberry  or  tamarisk 
wood  and  swung  on  door-sockets  of  stone,  baked  brick,  or 
cement.  In  the  case  of  quite  a  number  of  the  rooms,  rugs 
or  curtains  seem  to  have  taken  the  place  of  doors.  Owing  to 
the  destruction  of  the  house  by  fire  and  its  farther  devasta- 
tion by  rain  and  later  inhabitants  who  used  the  ruins  of  the 
once  imposing  structure  as  a  quarry  and  graveyard,  we  know 
little  or  nothing  "  as  to  the  methods  of  decoration  adopted 
by  the  builders  for  the  interior  of  the  palace."  It  was 
probably  plastered  and  painted  according  to  the  manner 
of  the  more  ambitious  structure  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Chebar. 

A  word  remains  to  be  said  about  the  courts  and  columns. 
The  larger  courtyard  (4)^  measured  nearly  64  by  70  feet,  the 
smaller  (11)  was  about  28  feet  square.  "The  central  part  of 
the  former  was  probably  open  to  the  sky,  to  give  light  and 
fresh  air  to  the  rooms,  while  columns,  placed  at  nearly  even 
distances  from  one  another,  served  to  support  a  root  over 
the  adjoining  gallery  or  colonnade  which  surrounded  it." 
There  were  four  round  columns  on  each  side  of  the  princi- 
pal courtyard  and  a  square  one  at  each  angle.  They  were 
built  of  baked  bricks  especially  made  for  the  purpose,  and 
must  have  been  at  least  fifty  courses,  or  125^  feet,  high. 
^  Comp.  the  cut,  p.  567. 


566  EXPLORATIONS  IN    BIIiLE  LANDS 

The  lower  parts  of  twelve  of  them  were  still  standing 
(comp.  the  illustration  facing  p.  340).  The  circular  col- 
umns were  2  feet  9  inches  in  diameter  at  the  base,  and  2 
feet  I  inch  at  the  fiftieth  course  of  bricks.  From  the  first 
to  the  seventeenth  course,  /.  e.,  during  the  first  third  of  the 
entire  height,  the  diameter  remained  nearly  constant ;  after 
that  it  gradually  diminished.  Certain  fragments  of  curiously 
moulded  bricks  found  near  the  courtyard  proved  that  these 
tapering  brick  columns  also  had  capitals.  As  Babylonian 
imitations  of  Doric  columns,  they  naturally  had  no  regular 
base,  but  rested  upon  burnt  brick  foundations  eleven  courses 
deep,  which  were  completely  hidden  in  the  soil.  "  Between 
these  square  foundations  ran  an  edging,  or  curbing,  of  the 
same  material,  but  only  two  courses  deep." 

All  the  other  characteristic  features  of  the  interesting 
building  can  be  studied  best  in  connection  with  the  accom- 
panying plan.  We  observe  that  the  little  palace  is  divided 
into  two  almost  equal  parts,  the  northeast  half  reserved  for 
the  public  functions  of  the  men,  and  the  southwest  half  for 
the  familv  life  proper.  From  the  entrance  lobby  (i)  two 
doors  open  off,  the  one  towards  the  west  leading  through  a 
small  anteroom  (8)  and  a  long  corridor  (9)  to  the  servants' 
quarters  (10-15)  and  harem  (16,  segq.)\  the  other  towards 
the  east  through  a  similar  anteroom  (2),  the  main  vesti- 
bule (3),  and  the  colonnade  into  the  large  courtyard  (4), 
flanked  bv  a  number  of  rooms.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the 
vestibule  is  not  situated  exactly  in  the  middle  with  reference 
to  the  courtyard.  In  leaving  the  latter  and  continuing  our 
way  towards  the  southeast,  we  first  pass  an  altar  on  our 
left  (5),  and  next  enter  the  two  largest  halls  of  the  whole 
building  (6  and  7).  They  are  connected  with  one  another 
bv  a  large  doorwav  which  generally  was  closed  by  a  double 
door,  as  two  sockets  found  in  situ  on  either  side  of  the  en- 
trance and  fragments  of  iron  hinges  and  nails  plainly  indi- 
cated.     One  step  edged  with  burned  bricks  leads  from   the 


DURING   lO'ii   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      567 

colonnade  to  the  atrium  (6),  and  three  steps  from  the  latter 
into  the  assembly  hall  proper  (7). 

The  harem  could  be  reached  from  the  colonnade  directly 


Plan  of  a  Small  Parthian  Palace  at  Nippur,  about  250  B.  C. 

Dhco'vered  in  iSSg,  and  exca-vated  completely  in  igoo.      About  thirty-six  rooms  and  halls  grouped 
around  open  courts.      Entrance  on  the  north-west  side.      Sur-veyed  by  Fisher  and  Geere  •   drawn 

by  the  former. 

by  a  narrow  passageway  (17),  either  end  of  which  was 
closed  by  a  door.^  A  kind  of  anteroom  (16)  formed  a 
connecting  link  between  the  men's  quarters,  the  servants' 
rooms  and  the  section  reserved  for  the  women.     Thus  the 

1  This  was  ascertained  from  two  door-sockets  found  /;/  situ. 
42 


568  EXTLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

private  apartments  of  the  family  were  securely  shut  off  from 
the  rest  of  the  building.  I'he  general  plan  and  arrange- 
ment of  this  section  do  not  require  special  interpretation,  as 
they  are  similar  to  those  of  the  northeast  half  of  the  palace. 
The  elevated  constructions  built  against  the  southeast  wall 
in  rooms  19  and  12  probably  are  places  for  reclining  and 
rest  (so-called  beds).  The  floor  of  the  bathroom  (18)  was 
paved  with  bitumen,  with  a  border  of  brickwork  coated  with 
the  same  material,  and  laid  in  such  a  way  as  to  drain  perfectly 
towards  the  opening  shown  in  the  plan.  The  kitchen  and 
storerooms  were  naturally  situated  in  the  servants'  quarters. 
The  former  (11)  was  easily  identified  by  its  hearth;  the  latter 
were  characterized  by  large  jars,  abundant  ashes,  and  quan- 
tities of  charred  barlev  and  other  seeds. 


TURKISH    GLEANINGS    AT    ABU     HABBA,    UNDER    SCHEIL    AND 

BEDRY     BEY. 

The  recent  awakening  of  archaeological  interest  in  Turkey, 
and  the  gradual  appreciation  of  the  literary  and  artistic  monu- 
ments of  the  past  on  the  part  of  the  Mohammedan  popula- 
tion, are  closely  connected  with  the  period  of  reform  and 
progress  inaugurated  by  Sultan  'Abdul  Hamid  in  different 
departments  of  the  public  administration.  For  not  only 
was  the  army  reorganized  after  European  patterns,  large 
tracts  of  fallow  land  acquired  by  the  crown  and  rapidly 
changed  into  flourishing  estates  (the  so-called  arazi-i-seniye), 
railroads  constructed  and  the  many  natural  resources  of  the 
country  opened  and  developed,  but  the  public  schools  were 
increased,  technical  colleges  and  a  university  established, 
daily  papers  appeared  and  —  something  formerly  entirely 
unknown  in  the  Ottoman  empire  —  illustrated  journals  were 
published,  and  even  a  great  national  museum  was  founded. 
The  man  called  upon  to  carry  out  the  ideas  of  his  sovereign 
in  the  field  of  archaeology  was  Hamdy  Bey,  son  of  Edhem 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      569 

Pasha,  a  former  Grand  Vizier.  Richly  endowed  with  natu- 
ral gifts  and  liberally  educated  in  the  congenial  atmosphere 
of  France,  where  his  pronounced  personal  inclinations  found 
ample  nourishment  in  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  and  in  the 
studios  of  great  painters,  he  had  subsequently  entered  the 
service  of  his  own  government  and  gathered  considerable 
experience  in  prominent  positions.  Appointed  director  of 
foreign  affairs  in  the  vilayet  of  Baghdad  under  the  famous 
Midhat  Pasha,  he  had  afterwards  won  the  favor  of  ^Abdul 
*Aziz  and  become  introducer  of  ambassadors,  and  for  a  short 
while  even  governor  of  Pera,  the  European  quarter  of  Con- 
stantinople. He  had  participated  in  the  expedition  against 
the  refractory  'Afej  tribes  of  Babylonia  and  had  seen  active 
military  life  in  the  Turkish  war  against  Russia.  Hamdy 
Bey  being  well  versed  in  the  general  questions  of  arch- 
aeology and  not  unfamiliar  with  the  most  prominent  ruins 
of  Western  Asia,  and  widely  known  for  his  deep  sense  of 
honor  and  his  frank  and  chivalrous  manners,  at  the  same 
time  possessing  firmness  of  character  and  a  rare  understand- 
ing for  the  tasks  of  his  mission,  it  would  have  been  difficult 
to  find  a  better  equipped  man  as  director-general  of  the  Im- 
perial Museum  in  the  whole  Ottoman  empire. 

The  beginnings  of  the  Turkish  archaeological  museum 
go  back  to  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  Fethi  Ahmed 
Pasha,  grand-master  of  the  artillery,  then  gathered  a  num- 
ber of  stray  antiquities  in  a  room  and  in  the  court  of  the 
ancient  church  of  St.  Irene.  Twenty-five  years  later,  when 
Dr.  Dethier  was  in  charge  of  these  modest  collections,  they 
were  transferred  by  an  imperial  irade  to  the  quaint  little 
palace  of  Tshinili  Kiosk,  one  of  the  best  types  of  early  Turk- 
ish architecture  and  faience  work  in  existence.  But  the  sub- 
sequent rapid  development  and  phenomenal  growth  of  this 
embryonic  museum  into  a  great  archaeological  storehouse  of 
international  reputation  is  almost  entirely  due  to  the  ener- 
getic measures  and  wise  administration  of  Hamdy  Bey,  who 


570  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

has  been  its  real  soul  and  characteristic  central  figure.  No 
sooner  was  he  entrusted  with  the  management  of  the  archaeo- 
logical affairs  of  his  country  (1881 ),  than  the  antiquated  and 
detrimental  laws  of  excavations,  under  which  a  national  Otto- 
man museum  could  not  prosper,  were  radically  changed  and 
remodelled/  The  spacious  subterranean  vaults  of  Tshinili 
Kiosk  were  carefully  searched  and  long-forgotten  monu- 
ments rediscovered.'^  System  and  order  began  soon  to  pre- 
v^ail,  where  formerly  nothing  was  accessible  to  science.  Small 
as  the  annual  sum  proved  to  be  which  was  placed  at  Hamdy 
Bey's  disposal  for  meeting  the  current  expenses  and  for  real- 
izing the  many  new  projects  constantly  cherished  by  his  ac- 
tive mind,  the  lofty  terrace  of  the  old  seraglio  with  its  superb 
view  on  the  Golden  Horn  presented  an  entirely  different 
picture  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Out  of  the 
midst  of  luxuriant  gardens  and  pleasing  alleys  adorned  with 
Greek  and  Roman  statues,  bas-reliefs,  pillars,  and  tomb- 
stones, there  rise  three  magnificent  fire-proof  buildings  filled 
with  rich  archaeological  treasures  open  for  public  inspection, 
while  close  by  the  museum  we  notice  the  School  of  Fine 
Arts,  with  its  three  sections  of  architecture,  sculpture  and 
painting,  created  to  propagate  knowledge  and  love  of  art 
and  archccologv  among  younger  generations. 

One  cannot  but  admire  the  courage  and  determination  of 
this  single  man,  who, in  the  face  of  numerous  obstacles  thrown 
in  his  way  by  his  own  countrvmen,  by  dissatisfied  explorers 

^  Compare  above.  A  translation  of  the  present  Turkish  law  on  Archseo- 
logical  Excavations  is  given  in  Appendix  D  of  John  P.  Peters'  "  Nippur,  or 
Explorations  and  Adventures  on  the  Euphrates,"  New  York,  1897,  vol.  i, 
pp.  303—309.  Recently,  however,  there  have  again  been  made  certain 
changes  with  regard  to  the  relations  between  the  government  and  private 
landowners. 

2  Unfortunatelv  the  monument  known  as  "  Sennacherib  Constantinople  " 
was  not  among  these  antiquities.  Cotnp.  Hilprecht,  Sanherib  Consta7iti7io- 
pel,  in  Zcitschrift  fiir  yjssyriologie,  vol.  xiii,  pp.  322-325,  and  p.  211, 
above. 


DURING  19T/I  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND   BABYLONIA      571 

and  foreign  diplomats,  was  able  to  accomplish  this  gigantic 
task  within  the  short  period  of  twenty  years,  —  a  fact  even 
more  remarkable  when  we  consider  that  the  inner  consolida- 
tion of  the  whole  department  kept  pace  with  the  external 
growth  and  development.  New  sections  were  created,  more 
officers  appointed,  a  well-equipped  library  was  added,  and 


The  Imperial  Ottoman  Museum  at  Constantinople 

Tkis  building  contains  a  refresentati've  collection  of  ancient  sarcophagi,  and  the  Babylonian, 
Assyrian,  Egyptian,  and  early  Turkish   antiquities. 

competent  specialists  were  invited  to  classify  and  catalogue 
the  various  collections.^  In  order  to  protect  the  more  ex- 
posed monuments  carved  in  the  rocks  of  mountain  passes, 

^  Among  them  the  two  brothers  of  Hamdy  Bey,  the  late  Ghalib  Bey  and 
Halil  Bey,  Director  of  the  Imperial  Ottoman  Museum,  for  Oriental  coins 
and  Moslem  antiquities  ;  Prof.  Andre  Joubin,  of  Paris,  for  classical  and  Byzan- 
tine antiquities  ;  Prof.  V.  Scheil,  of  Paris,  for  the  Egyptian  monuments  ;  Consul 
J.  H.  Mordtmann  for  South-Arabian  and  Palmyrene  antiquities  ;  and  Prof. 
Hilprecht,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  for  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
collections. 


572  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

built  in  modern  bridges  and  houses,  or  accidentally  found  in 
the  ground  by  the  natives,  special  regulations  were  drafted,^ 
and  orders  were  issued  to  the  officials  in  the  provinces  to 
report  new  antiquities  and  to  look  after  their  preservation. 
There  is  scarcely  a  branch  of  archaeology  which  did  not 
profit  in  some  way  by  these  and  similar  measures  which 
originated  in  the  brain  of  Hamdy  Bey.  The  inscribed  bas- 
relief  of  Naram-Sin  discovered  in  1892,  near  Diarbekr,  the 
fine  alabaster  slab  of  Bel-Harran-bel-usur  from  Tell  Abta 
(1894),  and  the  important  stele  of  Nabonidos  unearthed  by 
the  brick-diggers  of  Babil  (1895)  indicate  some  of  the  more 
prominent  monuments  which  hereby  were  saved  for  Assyri- 

Apart  from  the  numerous  antiquities  received  as  gifts, 
purchased  from  dealers,  and  obtained  through  the  personal 
interest  and  watchfulness  of  local  governors,  the  Ottoman 
Museum  drew  its  principal  collections  from  its  own  excava- 
tions and  from  the  trenches  of  European  and  American  ex- 
peditions in  Western  Asia.  The  first  tentative  Turkish 
diggings  at  Nebi  Yunus,^  undertaken  more  to  satisfy  curios- 
ity and  to  secure  hidden  treasures  than  to  serve  the  cause 
of  archteologv,  were  soon  followed  by  the  serious  exploration 
of  the  temple  of  Hecate  at  Legina,  by  Hamdy  Bey's  and 
Osgan  Effendi's  scientific  mission  to  the  snowy  summit  of 
Nimrud   Dagh,^  by  the  former's  famous  discovery  in   the 

^  At  the  request  of  Hamdy  Bey  the  present  writer  was  commissioned  to 
report  to  the  Ottoman  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  as  to  the  best  manner  of 
protecting  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  relics  and  mounds.  The  report  was 
submitted  in  1894,  and  action  was  soon  afterwards  taken  in  accordance  with 
the  recommendations.  Comp.  pp.  68,  se^.  ;  and  Hilprecht,  Turkische 
Bestrebungen  auf  dem  Gebiete  der  Ass-^riologie,  in  K'dlnische  Zcitung,  second 
supplement  of  the  Sunday  edition,  March  8,  1896  ;  also  Hilprecht,  "  Recent 
Researches  in  Bible  Lands,"  Philadelphia,   1896,  pp.  81-93. 

^  Comp.  p.  211,  above. 

^  Comp.  Hamdy  Bey  and  Osgan  EfFendi,  Le  Tumulus  de  Nemroud-Dagh, 
Constantinople,   1883. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ASSYRIA  AND   BABYLONIA      573 

royal  necropolis  of  Sidon,^  by  Scheil's  and  Bedry  Bey's 
gleanings  at  Abu  Habba,  and  by  Makridi  Bey's  recent  re- 
searches at  Bostan  esh-Shaikh."  The  new  spirit  of  pro- 
gress and  enlightenment  which  emanated  from  the  palace  and 
which  found  an  eloquent  herald  in  the  halls  of  the  Imperial 
Museum  is  best  characterized  by  the  unique  fact  that  sev- 
eral years  ago  a  young  officer  of  the  Turkish  army  submitted 
an  essay  on  the  Sumerian  question  to  the  present  writer 
for  criticism.  Though  leniently  to  be  judged  as  to  its  real 
merits,  this  manuscript  speaks  volumes  for  the  far-reaching 
influence  which  the  cuneiform  collections  at  Stambul  exer- 
cised as  an  educational  factor  upon  the  minds  of  intelligent 
Moslems.  No  wonder  that  it  was  the  Sultan  himself  who 
became  the  originator  of  the  first  Turkish  archaeological  ex- 
pedition to  Babylonia,  Deeply  interested  in  the  epoch- 
making  results  of  the  French  and  American  explorers  by 
which  the  Imperial  Museum  had  been  greatly  enriched,  His 
Majesty  placed  a  special  sum  of  money  out  of  his  private 
purse  at  the  disposal  of  Hamdy  Bey  for  methodical  excava- 
tions at  a  Babylonian  ruin. 

Immediately  after  Rassam's  departure  from  Baghdad  in 
1882,  Arab  diggers,  encouraged  by  unscrupulous  landown- 
ers and  antiquity  dealers,  had  commenced  their  clandestine 
operations  at  most  of  the  places  where  their  former  em- 
ployer had  successfully  excavated.  For  several  years  Abii 
Habba  and  Der,  El-Birs  and  Babylon,  thus  became  the 
principal  sources  from  which  European  and  American  mu- 
seums were  supplied  with  archaeological  contraband.  Only 
a  few  of  these  monuments  were  confiscated  and  reached  the 

1  Comp.  Hamdy  Bey  and  Th.  Reinach,  U/ie  Necropok  royak  a  Sidon, 
Fouilles  de  Ha/ndy  Be^,  Paris,   1896. 

-  A  few  miles  from  Saida  (Sidon).  Comp.  Hilprecht,  in  '•  The  Sunday 
School  Times,"  vol.  43,  p.  621  (Sept.  28,  1901),  and  in  Deutsche  Litera- 
turxeitung,  Nov.  30,  1901,  pp.  3030,  seg.,  and  in  "  Sunday  School  Times," 
Dec.  21,  1 90 1,  p.  857. 


574  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Ottoman  Museum.     Abu  Habba,  as  was  well  known  to  the 
authorities  in  Constantinople,  proved  an  especially  rich  and 
almost  inexhaustible  mine   for  the    illegal    traffic.       It  was 
therefore  decided  to  apply  the  imperial  fund  to  a  renewed 
examination  of  the  ruins  of  Sippar,  especially  as  brief  but 
successful  excavations  had  been  conducted  there  previously  . 
(1889)  by  the  Civil  Cabinet  under  the  control  of  the  gov- 
ernor of  Baghdad.^     The  carrying  out  of  this  scientific  pro- 
ject was  entrusted  to  Father  Scheil,  a  young  and  energetic 
French  Assyriologist,  who   had  rendered  valuable  services 
to  the  Stambul  museum  in  connection  w^ith  the  organization 
of  the  Egyptian  and  Babylonian  sections,  and  to  Bedry  Bey, 
a  well-known   Turkish  commissioner,  who  had  gained   no 
small  experience  in  the  trenches   of  Tello  and   Nuffar.    In 
the  beginning  of  1894  this  Ottoman  commission  reached  the 
place  of  its  destination.     Strongly  supported  by  the  officials 
of  the  vilayet,  and  confining  their  work  chiefly  to  a  search 
for  inscribed  monuments,  the  tw^o  men  were  able  to  execute 
their  task  satisfactorily  in  the  brief  space  of  two  months,  at 
the  end  of  which  their  limited  means  were  exhausted.      No 
complete  report  of  these  excavations  having  yet  appeared, 
we  can  only   sketch    the  principal    results   obtained  on   the 
basis  of  Scheil's  notes  published  in  Maspero's  journal,"  and 

1  Most  of  the  antiquities  discovered  were  lost  to  the  museum  in  Constanti- 
nople. Among  the  few  which  were  sent  are  the  interesting  archaic  stone 
fragment  published  in  Hilprecht,  "  Old  Babylonian  Inscriptions,  chiefly  from 
Nippur,"  part  i,  Philadelphia,  1893,  plates  vi-viii  (comp.  also,  Scheil  in 
Recueil  de  Travaux  relatifs  a  la  Philologie  et  a  P  Arch'eologie  egyptiennes  et 
assyriennes,  vol.  xxii  (1900),  pp.  29,  seqq.),  and  the  brick  from  a  well  con- 
structed by  Nebuchadrezzar,  published  ibidem,  part  2,  Philadelphia,  1896, 
pi.  70. 

2  Comp.  Recueil  de  Travaux  relatif  a  la  Philologie  et  a  F  Arch'eologte 
egyptiennes  et  assyriennes,  vol.  xvi  (1894),  pp.  90-92,  184,  seqq.,  vol.  xvii 
(1895),  pp.  184,  seqq.,  and  the  following  numbers  of  the  same  journal. 
According  to  a  communication  from  Prof.  Scheil,  a  book  on  his  work  at  Abu 
Habba  will  appear  in  the  course  of  1892  in  Cairo,  under  the  title  Une  saison 


DURING  19TM  CENTURY :   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      675 

in  accordance  with  my  own  personal  knowledge  of  the  col- 
lections of  the  Imperial  Museum. 

Among  the  objects  of  mere  archaeological  interest  a  num- 
ber of  rude  clay  animals  sitting  on  their  hind  legs,  and  on  an 
average  about  one  foot  high,  attract  our  attention.  There 
iSye.g.,  one  which  represents  a  monkey,  another  a  dog,  a 
third  a  bear,  while  others  are  modelled  so  poorly  that  it  is 
difficult  to  say  what  animals  are  intended  by  them.  Ap- 
parently thev  belong  to  the  earlier  period  of  Babylonian 
history  and  must  be  regarded  as  votive  offerings,  like  a 
neo-Babvlonian  dog  in  the  same  material  and  from  the  same 
ruins,  which  bears  a  dedication  of  two  lines  of  cuneiform  in- 
scription to  the  goddess  Gula.  Small  terra-cotta  figurines 
and  bas-reliefs,  including  images  of  Shamash  and  his  con- 
sort, and  the  mask  of  an  ugly  demon,  several  utensils  and 
weapons  in  bronze,  the  common  beads,  seal  cylinders,  stone 
weights,  and  other  minor  antiquities  as  thev  are  generally 
found  in  Babylonian  ruins,  complete  the  collection.  There 
are  also  a  few  bricks  of  King  Bur-Sin  II, ,  Kurigalzu,  Sha- 
mash-shum-ukin  and  Nebuchadrezzar  II.  But  the  most 
important  part  of  the  recovered  antiquities  are  nearly  seven 
hundred  clay  tablets,  complete  or  fragmentary,  most  of  them 
letters  and  contracts  dated  in  the  reigns  of  rulers  of  the  first 
Babylonian  dynasty,  especially  Samsu-iliana,  the  son  and  suc- 
cessor of  Hammurabi.  Some  of  the  inscriptions  are  of  a 
literary  character  and  belonged  originally  to  the  famous 
temple  library  of  Sippara.  We  notice  several  syllabaries 
and  lists  of  cuneiform  signs,  school  exercises  on  round 
tablets,  proverbs,  incantations,  hvmns  and  two  fragments 
of  historical  interest.  The  one  reveals  to  us  the  name  of  a 
new  member  of  the  third  dynasty  of  Ur,  Idin-Dagan  (about 
2500    B.    c),    the  other  contains   in   chronological   order   a 

de  fouilles  a  Sippar  (with  plates,  numerous  vignettes  and  a  plan  of  the  ruins), 
and  forming  vol.  i  of  Me  moires  de  P  Insiitut  frafi^ais  d''  Archeologie  ortentale 
du  Caire. 


576  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

number  of  dates  from  the  time  of  Hammurabi  and  Samsu- 
iluna/  by  means  of  which  the  single  years  of  their  govern- 
ments were  officially  designated  and  known  to  the  people. 

Unfortunately,  most  of  the  letters  discovered  contain, 
according  to  Scheil,  only  accounts.  But  nevertheless  there 
are  many  among  them  which  bring  before  our  eyes  scenes 
from  the  daily  lives  of  the  ancient  Babylonians  in  such  a 
realistic  manner  that  human  conditions  and  circumstances 
may  seem  to  have  changed  but  little  during  the  past  four 
thousand  years.  For  example,  an  official,  stationed  in  a 
small  village,  Dur-Sin,  complains  to  his  father  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  procure  anything  fit  to  eat,  and  begs  him,  there- 
fore, to  buy  with  the  accompanying  piece  of  money  some 
food,  and  send  it  to  him.  But  let  the  writer  of  this  epistle 
speak  for  himself:  "To  my  father  from  Zimri-eramma. 
May  the  gods  Shamash  and  Marduk  keep  thee  alive  for- 
ever. May  all  go  well  with  thee.  I  write  thee  to  inquire 
after  thy  health.  Please  let  me  know  how  it  goes  with  thee. 
I  am  stationed  in  Dur-Sin,  on  the  canal  Bitimsikirim. 
Where  1  live  there  is  no  food  which  I  am  able  to  eat.  Here 
is  the  third  part  of  a  shekel,  which  I  have  sealed  up,  and 
forward  unto  thee.  Send  me  for  this  money  fresh  fish  and 
other  food  to  eat." 

Another  letter,  addressed  to  a  female  by  the  name  of 
Bibeya,  reads  as  follows  :  "To  Bibeyafrom  Gimil-Marduk : 
May  Shamash  and  Marduk  grant  thee,  for  my  sake,  to  live 
forever.  I  write  this  in  order  to  inquire  after  thy  health. 
Let  me  know  how  it  goes  with  thee.  I  am  now  settled  in 
Babylon,  but  I  am  in  great  anxiety,  because  I  have  not  seen 
thee.  Send  news  when  thou  wilt  come,  that  I  may  rejoice 
at   it.     Come  at   the  month   of  Arakhsamna  [November- 

^  Recently  published  by  Scheil  in  Texies  Elamites-Semitiques  (forming  vol. 
ii.  of  De  Morgan's  Delegation  en  Perse,  Memoir es^,  series  i,  Paris,  1900, 
p.  83,  note  I  ;  and  by  Lindl  in  Beitrage  zur  Assyriologie,  vol.  iv,  part  3 
(Leipzig,   1 901),  pp.  341,  seqq. 


DURING  lOTu  CENTURY:   ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA      577 

December].  Mayest  thou,  for  my  sake,  live  forever."  It 
is  clear  that  this  letter  was  not  written  to  a  mother,  sister, 
daughter,  or  any  other  relative,  because,  according  to  Baby- 
lonian custom,  relationship  is  generally  indicated  by  a  word 
placed  in  apposition  after  the  name  of  the  person  to  whom 
the  letter  is  addressed.  Therefore  we  can  scarcely  be  wrong 
in  regarding  this  clay  tablet  as  a  specimen  of  an  ancient 
Babylonian  love-letter  of  the  time  of  Abraham. 

Finally,  there  may  be  mentioned  a  small  round  tablet  of 
the  same  period,  and  from  the  same  ruins,  which  contains, 
in  the  Babylonian  style,  a  parallel  passage  to  Daniel  12:3: 
"  Thev  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the 
•firmament."  It  has  but  three  lines  of  inscription  written  in 
Sumerian,  the  old  sacred  language  of  that  country  :  — 

I    S/ia  ^  muntila 

1  ki  namdupsara-ka 

3   u-gim  gena-e 
That  is,  "  Whoever  distinguishes  himself  at  the  place  of 
tablet-writing    [in  other  words,  at  the  school  or  university 
of  the  Babylonians]  shall  shine  as  the  day.^  " 

^  Semitism  for  Sumerian  galu. 

"^  For   the  above  sketch  comp.    Hilprecht,   *'  Recent   Researches  in   Bible 
Lands,"  Philadelphia,  1896,  pp.  81-86. 


RESEARCHES    IN    PALESTINE 


&^ 


^^:^^/r^^^^i^  ^ 


RESEARCHES    IN    PALESTINE 


BY    Lie.     DR.    J.    BENZINGER 

Palestine   became    the    object  of  most  general   interest 
earlier  than  any  other  Oriental   country.      It  was  known  to 

Christendom  from 
its  earliest  days  as 
the  "  Holy  Land," 
being  regarded  as 
the  land  where  God 
trequently  had  re- 
vealed himself  and 
where  sacred  history 
had  been  enacted. 
Nevertheless  Pales- 
tine research  is  but 
a  child  of  the  cen- 
tury just  closed,  die 
systematic  explora- 
tion of  the  land  in 
all  its  aspects  be- 
ginning, properly 
speaking,  with  the 
foundation  of  the 
English  Palestine 
Exploration  Fund 
in  the  year  1865. 
This  late  awakening 
of  scientific  interest 
in  Palestine  is  quite  in  accordance  with  its  associations  and 
with  the  character  of  the  land,  as  being  a  "  holy"  one. 


The  so-called  Tomb  of  Absalom 


582  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

From  the  time  that  Christians  began  to  make  pilgrim- 
ages to  Palestine  until  our  own  century,  the  causes  that 
impelled  them  to  do  so  have  been  religious.  To  pray  in 
sacred  places  was  thought  particularly  meritorious,  and  ex- 
tensive indulgences  were  secured  through  a  visit  to  them. 
The  interest  of  the  pilgrims  was  excited,  however,  only  by 
those  places  which  were  pointed  out  to  them  as  the  scenes 
of  sacred  events.  The  knowledge  of  Palestine  which  they 
brought  home  with  them  consisted  substantially  in  an  enu- 
meration and  description  of  the  places  that  were  held  in 
special  veneration.  Concerning  these  they  wrote  for  the 
edification  of  other  Christians  and  the  guidance  of  future 
travellers.  All  this  is  to-day  of  inestimable  value  to  those 
of  us  who  endeavor  to  trace  accurately  the  history  of  the 
individual  sacred  places,  but  it  was  no  scientific  exploration 
of  the  land. 

Besides,  during  the  first  centuries  of  Christendom  such  a 
veneration  of  sacred  places  was  not  yet  known,  —  a  fact 
which  renders  the  value  of  the  traditions  handed  down 
by  the  pilgrims  practically  almost  nil.  To  know  Christ 
"  after  the  flesh  "  seemed  to  a  Paul  almost  worthless 
(■2  Cor.  5  :  i6);  and  the  gaze  of  the  first  Christians  was 
fixed  not  backwards  but  forwards,  upon  the  glorious  future  ; 
the  Jerusalem  for  which  they  were  looking  lay  not  in  Pal- 
estine. It  was  only  after  the  great  persecutions  during 
which  the  Christians  had  learned  to  esteem  as  holy  the 
martyrs  and  their  burial-places,  that  they  also  thought  of 
the  greatest  of  martyrs.  Only  after  Christianity  had,  under 
Constantine,  become  the  state  religion  could  the  Christian 
Church  look  upon  Palestine  as  its  own  possession ;  and 
only  after  Marv  came  to  be  quite  generally  regarded  as  the 
mother  of  God  could  the  cult  of  the  saints  and  of  sacred 
places  blossom  forth  in  all  its  vigor.  It  is  necessary  to  keep 
this  in  mind  in  order  to  understand  how  tradition  —  even 
the  oldest  and  best  —  is  separated  from  the  time  of  Christ 


DURING    lOTii   CENTURY:    PALESTINE  583 

and  the  Apostles  by  a  gap  of  well-nigh  three  hundred  years, 
a  striking  fact,  and  one  that  in  the  interest  of  Palestine  re- 
search is  in  many  ways  deeply  to  be  deplored. 

How  supremely  indifferent  that  early  period  was  towards 
such  historical  spots,  and  how  completely  their  exact  loca- 
tion was  forgotten,  is  best  illustrated  by  the  history  of  the 
chief  sacred  place  of  Christianity,  the  Sepulchre  of  Christ. 
In  his  letter  to  Makarius,  the  emperor  Constantine  regards 
the  discovery  of  the  cross  and  sepulchre  of  Christ  as  a 
miracle;  and  according  to  still  later  accounts  the  empress 
Helena  needed  a  divine  inspiration  in  order  to  find  the 
holy  sepulchre.  Not  even  the  situation  of  this  spot  could 
therefore  be  given  with  certainty  at  that  time  ;  much  less, 
then,  were  men  still  able  to  point  out  other  less  important 
places.  Jerusalem  had  become  a  new  city ;  the  old  one 
lay  deep  under  ruins.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  this,  tradition 
thrived,  and  became  the  most  prolific  source  of  legends. 
From  century  to  century  the  number  of  sacred  places  in- 
creased, while  the  more  important  ones  were  gradually  sur- 
rounded by  a  web  of  tradition  so  dense  as  almost  to  defy 
disentanglement.  We  cannot  blame  the  monks  of  the 
Middle  Ages  who,  often  in  good  faith,  were  constantly 
finding  new  sacred  places.  The  pilgrims  compelled  them 
so  to  do,  and  did  not  cease  compelling  them  until  they  were 
shown  the  precise  spot  for  everything  imaginable.  This 
sort  of  tradition  was  in  a  certain  sense  terminated  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  when  the  scholar  Francesco  Quaresmio 
collected  and  reduced  the  existing  material  to  writing  in  his 
great  work  Elucidatio  Terra  Sancta.  That  tradition  has, 
however,  not  become  entirely  torpid,  but  that  it  still  pos- 
sesses enough  vitality  to  send  forth  new  shoots,  has  been 
strikingly  demonstrated  in  the  last  few  years.  Scarcely  had 
the  German  Kmperor  presented  to  the  German  Catholics  a 
piece  of  land  on  Zion,  where  tradition  locates  the  so-called 

Dormitio,  i.  e.   the  place  of   Mary's   demise,  when    it  was 
43 


584  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

loudly  proclaimed  that  the  place  ot  the  Cd-riacu/um,  where 
Christ  celebrated  the  Last  Supper  with  his  disciples,  is  to 
be  sovight  there. 

These  historical  antecedents  of  Palestine  research  must 
be  kept  in  view  in  order  to  understand  the  peculiar  develop- 
ment of  our  knowledge  of  Palestine  as  a  science  in  our  cen- 
tury. This  development  had  to  begin  with  a  struggle 
against  these  overpowering  traditions,  and  this  struggle 
above  all  made  manifest  the  need  of  undertaking  a  reliable 
geographical  and  scientific  exploration  of  the  land,  the  re- 
sults of  which  would  for  all  time  to  come  put  an  end  to  the 
making  of  fables.  Even  the  excavations  in  Jerusalem  were 
performed  in  the  interests  of  topography,  having  for  their 
object  the  determining  of  the  course  of  the  walls  and  other 
important  points;  and  in  the  case  of  not  a  few  questions 
the  contention  in  regard  to  the  authenticity  of  sacred  places 
has  been  the  starting-point  and  goal  of  the  discussions. 
Over  against  these  the  excavations  undertaken  purely  in 
the  interests  of  archaeology  were  accorded  only  a  secondary 
place,  although  the  finds,  few  in  number,  were  so  much 
the  more  weighty  in  significance. 

It  does  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  this  sketch  to  refer  to 
all  the  self-sacrificing  and  enthusiastic  men  who  have  given 
their  strength  to  the  exploration  of  the  Holy  Land  ;  nor  is 
it  even  possible  in  a  brief  treatise  to  make  mention  of  all 
the  important  results,  or  to  describe  the  methods  by  which 
these  have  been  reached.  We  shall  therefore  limit  our- 
selves to  an  enumeration  of  onlv  those  very  important 
results  in  the  fields  of  labor  mentioned  which  will  serve 
best  at  the  same  time  to  show  what  is  the  task  of  the 
future  ;  and  to  the  presentation  here  and  there  of  an  illus- 
tration typical  of  the  manner  in  which  the  investigators 
worked. 


DURING  19TII  CENTUBY:   PALESTINE  585 


TOPOGRAPHY 


In  the  year  1841  there  appeared,  in  three  volumes,  the 
work  entitled  "  Biblical  Researches,"  in  which  an  Ameri- 
can, Edward  Robinson,  professor  of  theology  in  New 
York,  gave  the  results  of  his  travels  in  Palestine  during  the 
year  1838.  The  book  was  looked  upon,  by  the  few  who  at 
that  time  made  a  careful  study  of  Palestine,  as  the  turning 
point  in  the  whole  matter  of  Palestine  research.  No  one 
felt  this  more  keenly  than  Titus  Tobler,  the  father  of  Ger- 
man Palestinian  research.  He  was  at  first  somewhat  de- 
pressed by  the  thought  that  the  problem  to  the  solution  of 
which  he  had  for  years  applied  all  his  energies  now  seemed 
to  be  almost  entirely  solved  by  another  man.  But  Tobler 
after  all  still  found  a  rich  field  in  which  to  work,  and  to  this 
day  Palestinian  research  has  never  been  embarrassed  for  lack 
of  problems  to  solve.  Nevertheless  it  is  quite  true  that 
Robinson's  work  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  our 
knowledge  of  Palestine. 

What  was  it  that  made  the  man  and  his  book  so  impor- 
tant and  placed  them  at  the  beginning  of  a  new  departure 
in  the  development  of  this  branch  of  science  ? 

Robinson  himself  found  that  in  all  former  descriptions  by 
travellers  two  defects  were  inherent.  In  the  first  place, 
travellers  simply  followed  the  footsteps  of  the  monks.  It 
made  little  difference  w^hether  thev  were  Catholics  or  Protes- 
tants. Almost  all,  e.  g.,  in  Jerusalem,  were  entertained  in 
the  monasteries.  The  monks  served  as  their  guides  ;  and 
from  the  great  storehouse  of  the  monasteries  they  obtained 
their  information.  The  majority  of  them  were  also  rather 
credulous  as  regards  the  things  that  were  told  them.  Thus 
it  comes  that  their  accounts  are  substantially  alike.      Even 


58G  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

when  one  had  his  douhts  as  to  the  trustworthiness  of  a  tra- 
dition, he  was  unable  to  furnish  anything  better  than  the 
questionable  tales  from  the  monasteries.  Robinson,  on  the 
contrary,  trom  the  first  took  the  position  that  only  such 
ecclesiastical  tradition  is  to  be  regarded  of  value  as  is  au- 
thenticated bv  the  testimony  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  or  in 
other  words,  only  that  which  is  traceable  to  contemporaries 
and  which  has  been  constant  from  the  beginning. 

The  other  mistake  was  that  travellers  were  ignorant  of 
the  Arabic  language  and  could  hold  intercourse  with  the 
people  onlv  through  interpreters  ;  accordingly  thev  never 
stepped  off  from  the  well-beaten  paths  which  all  their  pre- 
decessors had  trodden.  In  this  way  the  valuable  traditions, 
vyhich  still  continued  to  live  among  the  people,  escaped 
them.  Robinson  found  such  sound  traditions  preserved  es- 
pecially in  the  names  of  places.  The  Semitic  names  have 
maintained  themselves  with  remarkable  tenacity  among  the 
Semitic  population  of  Palestine,  even  where  the  Romans 
endeavored  to  replace  them  with  new  names.  Lvdda,  Em- 
maus,  Accho,  Bethshean,  and  many  other  places  for  a  time 
bore  Roman  names  ( Diospolis,  Nikopolis,  Ptolemais,  Sky- 
thopolis),  but  with  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  government 
these  names  almost  entirely  disappeared.  Onlv  the  towns 
Shechem  and  Samaria  torm  an  exception,  their  Roman 
names  Neapolis  and  Sebaste  still  remaining  in  an  Arabicized 
form  (Nablus  and  Sebastiye).  Robinson  could  appreciate 
the  value  of  these  traditions  and  understood  how  to  make 
them  render  service.  His  companion  at  that  time  w^as  Kli 
Smith,  an  American  missionary  in  Beirut,  well  versed  in 
linguistic  knowledge.  F'or  years  he  had  industriously  gath- 
ered proper  names,  from  every  available  source,  in  order 
that  when  the  opportunitv  came  on  his  journevs  he  might 
test  them  on  the  spot.  His  trained  ear  kept  him  trom  hear- 
ing out  of  the  mouths  of  the  Arabs  the  frightful  monstros- 
ities w'hich  had  hitherto  been  paraded  before  the  reader  in 
almost  all  works  on  Palestine. 


DURING  10 III   CENTURY:   PALESTINE 


587 


Viewing  their  task  from  this  standpoint,  both  of  them 
travelled  over  the  entire  Holy  Land.  The  first  journey 
was  from  Kgvpt  to  Sinai,  thence  by  way  of  Akabah  and 
Hebron  to  Jerusalem,  where  they  remained  for  a  time. 
After  making  a  complete  tour  of  Judea,  they  continued 
their  journey  by  way  of  Nazareth  and  Tiberias  to  Beirut. 
A    second   journev   followed    fourteen   years    later    (1852), 


Colonnade  ot  Sebastive 


which  took  the  investigators  especiallv  through   Galilee  and 
Samaria,  upon  the  Lebanon  range,  and  to  Damascus. 

Neither  of  these  two  journeys  consumed  quite  four 
months,  yet  an  amazingly  large  amount  of  new  and  hitherto 
unknown  material  was  collected  ;  for  by  preference  the  ex- 
plorers travelled  over  unfrequented  wavs,  which  lay  apart 
from  the  great  highways  of  the  pilgrims.  With  ceaseless 
industry  they  worked,  always  accurately  measuring  the  dis- 
tances, and  describing  the  route,  even  to  the  smallest  details, 


088  EXPLORATIONS  IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

SO  minutely  that  with  their  book  as  a  guide  one  imagines  he 
could  here  and  there  find  his  way  without  the  aid  of  chart 
or  compass.  Wherever  possible  they  took  angle-measure- 
ments of  the  more  important  localities ;  their  measuring 
rod  was  constantly  in  their  hand  ;  and,  whether  they  ex- 
amined the  walls  oi  Jerusalem,  or  inspected  a  house,  or  saw 
a  pool  or  well,  everything  was  measured  in  the  most  exact 
manner.  They  were  the  first  to  crawl  through  the  Siloam 
conduit  (see  below),  which  they  did  with  great  difficulty, 
part  of  the  way  sliding  on  their  stomachs  in  the  water.  More 
important  still  than  the  number  of  new  observations  is  the 
circumstance  that  everything  which  was  observed  and  de- 
scribed had  been  thoroughly  and  reliably  investigated. 
Thus  was  laid  the  foundation  upon  which,  without  fear  or 
doubt,  the  further  researches  could  rest. 

As  an  historical  topographer  Titus  Tobler  perhaps  accom- 
plished still  more  than  Robinson.  He  made  his  first  jour- 
ney to  Palestine  in  his  early  years  merely  as  an  amateur,  and 
soon  after  he  had  begun  the  practice  of  medicine  in  the 
mountains  of  the  Canton  of  Appenzell.  But  this  pleasure 
trip,  while  it  served  to  excite  his  interest  and  to  afford  him 
instruction,  did  not  satisfy  his  thorough-going  spirit  of  in- 
vestigation. Hence  when  he  had  reached  home  he  at  once 
began  the  study  of  Palestinian  literature,  at  the  same  time 
unceasingly  and  indefatigably  collecting,  reading,  and  ex- 
cerpting whatever  accounts  of  pilgrimages  and  travels  he 
was  able  to  obtain.  In  a  manner  hitherto  unattained,  he 
mastered  the  literature  that  in  his  dav  dealt  with  the  sphere 
which  he  had  chosen  for  himself.  This  sphere  had  in 
course  of  time  become  somewhat  restricted.  After  studying 
Robinson's  epoch-making  work,  he  concentrated  his  labor 
mainly  upon  Judea  ;  tor  he  soon  recognized  that  here  even 
after  Robinson's  researches,  as  far  as  the  history  and  topo- 
graphy of  sacred  places  were  concerned,  there  remained  still 
enough  to  be  done. 


DURING   I'.rin   CENTURY:    PALESTINE  589 

In  the  autumn  of  1845  he  started  on  his  second  journey, 
and  remained  in  Jerusalem  for  twenty  weeks.  The  results 
thereof  he  recorded  in  seven  volumes,  numbering  altogether 
3753  p3-ges.  Supported  bv  his  very  extensive  reading, 
Tobler  sought  to  give  the  most  complete  historical  proofs 
for  all  his  observations  ;  and  consequently  his  works  con- 
tain the  history  of  all  places  and  monuments  investigated 
by  him,  so  far  as  this  is  possible.  To  this  very  day,  he  who 
desires  to  concern  bimself  with  the  historv  of  these  places 
must  begin  with  Tobler's  investigations.  Moreover,  his 
historical  presentations  excite  special  interest  because  they 
enable  us  to  trace  the  rise  and  growth  of  legends,  in  the 
frequently  peculiar  vet  at  the  same  time  so  significant  varia- 
tions of  tradition  that  mark  the  development  of  the  historv 
of  civilization.  Besides  this  Tobler  mercilesslv  exposes  the 
credulitv  and  lively  imagination  of  so  many  modern  trav- 
ellers, and  their  pious  or  poetic  phrases.  He  allows  no- 
thing to  pass  but  a  clear,  sober,  precise  description  of  what 
actuallv  exists,  just  as  he  himself  takes  pains  to  give  a  purely 
objective  and  trustworthy  account  of  the  condition  of  things 
as  he  found  them. 

Accordinglv  we  owe  to  him  the  first  thorough  and  clear 
description  of  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre  and  of  the  sacred 
places  surrounding  it,  a  description  which  makes  clear  to  us 
the  sepulchre's  confused  construction  and  its  still  more  com- 
plicated conditions  of  ownership.  In  order  to  come  to  an 
independent  judgment  regarding  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  he 
undertook  an  extensive  investigation  of  the  ancient  Jewish 
tombs  surrounding  the  city,  and  thus  was  the  first  to  dis- 
close to  science  these  most  remarkable  and  most  genuine 
monuments  of  an  ancient  period.  To  him  we  are  also  in- 
debted for  the  first  correct  map  of  the  network  of  streets  in 
Jerusalem  with  their  native  names. 

A  third  journey,  in  the  year  1857,  was  devoted  above  all 
to    the   exploration    of  Judea.      It   showed   how    little  was 


590  EXI'LORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

hitherto  really  known  of  this  section  of  the  land,  how  scarcely 
a  single  one  of  the  characteristic,  deep-cut  valleys  was  cor- 
rectly indicated  on  the  maps,  and  how  the  whole  traditional 
view  of  a  "  barren  and  desolate  "  Judea  was  entirely  erro- 
neous. 

On  his  last  journey,  in  the  year  1865,  Tobler,  then  nearly 
sixty  years  of  age,  intended  to  explore  Nazareth  in  the  same 
thorough  manner,  but  cholera  interfered  with  his  journey 
to  that  place.  Nevertheless  he  succeeded,  by  means  of 
numerous  inquiries,  in  informing  himself  so  extensively  that 
his  book  on  Nazareth  is  not  inferior  to  his  other  works. 

Besides  what  he  observed  and  found  in  the  land  itself, 
we  must  not  forget  what  he  accomplished  at  home  in  in- 
vestigating the  old  descriptions  of  travels.  One  of  his  favor- 
ite wishes  was  to  publish  all  descriptions  of  travels  from  the 
third  to  the  fifteenth  century  in  the  most  carefully  edited 
form  possible.  This  project  he  could,  however,  carry  out 
onlv  in  a  fragmentary  wav,  ?.nd  mostlv  at  his  own  expense. 
His  excellent  annotations  made  a  number  of  the  old 
writings  for  the  first  time  really  serviceable.  To  him  be- 
longs the  honor  of  being  to  this  day  unsurpassed,  so  far  as' 
knowledge  of  the  Palestine  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  modern 
times  is  concerned. 

If,  after  reading  the  great  mass  of  earlv  Palestinian  lit- 
erature, one  turns  to  the  works  of  Robinson  and  Tobler, 
he  gets  the  impression  that  these  two  men  had  really  been 
the  first  to  discover  the  land.  As  remarked  above,  only  a 
very  small  part  of  the  manv  hundred  names  of  places  was 
previously  known.  Through  these  investigators  it  was  also 
first  discovered  that  something  was  to  be  seen  and  learned 
in  the  Holy  Land  besides  the  sacred  places  which  the  monks 
pointed  out  to  pilgrims  ;  that  in  addition  to  the  Christian 
Church  and  the  monasteries  it  was  also  worth  while  to  con- 
cern oneself  about  the  customs  and  manners  of  the  people, 
the  nature  of  the  soil  and  climate,  and   many  other  things. 


DURING  I'jrn  CENTURY  :   PALESTINE  591 

How  much  Palestine  itself  could  still  contribute  to  a  better 
understanding  of  the  Bible  is  clearly  shown  in  their  books. 
But  these  also  made  it  evident  that  Palestine  was  still  to 
a  great  extent  an  unknown  land,  waiting  to  be  explored 
according  to  the  principles  and  with  the  thoroughness  of 
these  two  pioneers. 

II 

THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  SURVEY  OF  THE  LAND 

The  land  that  first  felt  the  new  impulse  was  England. 
Here  it  was  first  realized  that  only  now  the  real  beginning 
of  the  svstematic  exploration  of  Palestine  was  to  be  made, 
that  such  a  task  was  beyond  the  power  of  individual  trav- 
ellers, and  that  in  general  such  isolated  research,  devoid  of 
system  and  unitv,  had  no  great  value. 

In  the  year  1865  a  number  of  friends  of  Palestine  met  in 
London  and  organized  a  society  known  as  the  Palestine 
Exploration  Fund.  Its  object  was  to  be  the  complete 
systematic  and  scientific  exploration  of  the  Holy  Land,  and 
thus  above  all  to  aid  in  elucidating  the  Scriptures.  Never- 
theless the  society  did  not  profess  to  be  a  religious  society, 
and  proposed  to  do  its  work  along  strictly  scientific  lines. 
The  idea  was  taken  up  with  great  enthusiasm.  Within  the 
first  three  years  the  munificent  sum  of  /, 8,000  (about 
$40,000)  was  voluntarily  contributed,  and  with  great  expecta- 
tions the  first  expedition,  under  Captain  Wilson,  proceeded 
to  the  Holy  Land.  They  hoped  to  be  able  in  a  few  years 
to  solve  all  problems  and  to  bring  to  an  end  the  thorough 
exploration  of  Palestine,  —  an  error  indeed,  but  a  pardona- 
ble one.  Only  as  the  exploration  progressed  was  it  dis- 
covered how  manv  questions  remained  to  be  answered. 

The  standard  work  that  the  Palestine  Exploration  Fund 
accomplished  was  the  geographical  survey  of  the  land.    Such 


592  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

a  survey  had  become  a  pressing  necessity.  To  what  extent 
former  maps,  even  the  best  of  Robinson,  Van  de  Velde  and 
others,  were  unreliable  was  made  verv  evident  by  a  com- 
parison with  the  results  of  this  first  survey.  Scarcely  a 
place  was  altogether  correctly  located,  not  a  line  of  hills  was 
accurately  marked,  no  valley  course  was  properly  placed, 
and  not  one  indicated  distance  was  reliable.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise;  for  leaving  the  coast  surveys  of  the  admiralty 
out  of  consideration,  there  were  lacking  everywhere  thor- 
oughly trustworthy  astronomical  determinations  of  the  loca- 
tion of  places.  The  distances  were  estimated  and  indicated 
according  to  the  time  consumed  by  the  individual  travellers 
on  their  wav.  In  addition,  only  a  small  fraction,  about  one 
sixth  of  all  the  names,  were  marked  at  all  on  the  two  above- 
mentioned  maps.  The  English  expedition  was  on  the  field 
from  the  vear  1872  until  the  summer  of  1875,  and  again 
from  I  877  till  1878,  under  the  leadership  of  Captain  Conder 
and  Lieutenant  (now  Lord)  Kitchener.^  The  whole  country 
west  of  the  Jordan  was  carefully  surveyed.  Not  only  was 
every  place,  everv  little  valley,  and  every  hill  indicated,  but 
also  every  road  and  every  spring.  All  wells  and  cisterns  of 
any  significance  were  recorded ;  and  all  the  old  structures 
and  graves  which  were  found  were  measured  and  sketched. 
The  ground  was  literally  searched  foot  after  foot,  and  more 
recent  explorers  have  scarcely  succeeded  in  making  any  im- 
portant additions.  Numberless  plans  and  sketches  bear 
witness  to  the  industry  and  carefulness  of  the  workers. 

The  results  are  put  on  record  in  the  great  map  of  the 
country  west  of  the  Jordan  and  in  the  memoirs  which  fill 
four  stately  volumes.  A  few  figures  will  help  to  show  the 
value  of  the  work.  Over  10,000  names  are  entered  upon 
the  map,  while  the  Index  General  of  Robinson  contains  only 
171  2.      Before  the  expedition  was  sent   out,  it  was  believed 

^  The  same  who  is  at  present  (1901  )  commander  in  chief  of  the  English 
troops  in  South  Africa.  —  The  Editor. 


DURING   I'.nn  GENTURY :   PALESTINE 


593 


that  about  260  of  about  600  Biblical  names  in  the  country 
west  of  the  Jordan  had  been  identified ;  but  Conder's  re- 
searches enabled  him  to  bring  forward  about  72  new  identi- 
fications, so  that  we  would  know  nearlv  two-thirds  of  the 
Biblical  places.  As 
regards  the  proposed 
identifications  there 
is  of  course  much 
chaff  mixed  with 
the  wheat,  many  ot 
them  not  having 
stood  the  test  in  the 
light  ot  sober  sci- 
ence. It  may  in- 
deed be  said  that  in 
this  respect  our 
knowledge  of  the 
topography  of  the 
Holv  Land  has  not 
yet  advanced  much 
beyond  its  begin- 
nings. The  names 
which  can  be  iden- 
tified with  complete 
certainty  (as  far  as  such  certainty  is  at  all  possible)  are  not 
very  numerous.  It  is  an  advantage,  however,  even  to  have 
these  identifications  attempted  and  proposed,  and  of  still 
greater  value  that  historical  geography  has  found  a  sound 
foundation  in  this  exact  survey  of  the  land.  Only  now 
when  we  have  a  trustworthy  and  exact  representation  of  the 
whole  district  as  it  is  to-day,  of  the  position  of  places  and 
their  names,  of  the  old  ruins  and  highways  of  commerce, 
of  springs  and  cisterns,  etc.,  are  we  able  to  enter  upon  a 
systematic  treatment  of  Biblical  topography. 

An  example  may  show  how  a  correct  decision  regarding 


The  so-called  Tomb  of  Hiiani,  near  Tyre 


594  EXPLOHAriONS    L\  BIBLE  LANDS 

the  situation  of  a  place  is  conditioned  not  merely  by  a 
knowledge  of  its  name  and  of  the  site  of  its  supposed  ruins, 
but  to  an  equal  extent  by  the  consideration  of  the  roads  and 
of  the  general  contour  of  the  ground.  According  to  the 
statement  of  distances  given  in  the  "  Peutingerian  Tables" 
and  others,  the  ancient  Capitolias,  an  important  city  of 
the  Kast-Jordanic  country,  should  be  looked  for  on  the 
road  from  Gadara  to  Adraha,  /'.  <?.,  to  the  east  or  northeast 
of  Gadara.  An  accurate  survey  of  the  ground  by  Schu- 
macher within  the  last  few  years  has  shown,  however,  that 
this  road  never  could  have  run  due  east,  but  that  deep- 
cut  ravines  with  almost  perpendicular  sides  lying  between 
both  cities,  compelled  the  road  to  make  a  considerable  cir- 
cuit to  the  south.  Consequently  we  find  the  city  looked 
for  to  the  southeast  of  Gadara,  in  the  ruins  of  the  present 
Bet  Ras,  the  important  remains  of  which  leave  no  doubt 
that  here  at  one  time  a  great  and  flourishing  city  existed. 

The  survey  of  the  country  west  of  the  Jordan  was  to  be 
followed  by  that  of  the  country  east  of  the  river,  and  in  1881 
Captain  Conder  set  out  once  more.  It  was  hoped  that  the 
old  firman  of  the  Ottoman  government  would  still  hold 
good.  This  was  however  not  the  case.  After  a  few  weeks, 
work  Conder  received  peremptory  orders  from  the  gov- 
ernor of  Es-Salt  to  suspend  work.  By  means  of  somewhat 
protracted  negotiations  Conder  succeeded  in  gaining  a  little 
time  ;  and  when  he  was  finally  obliged  to  return  he  took 
home  with  him  abundant  material.  Five  hundred  English 
square  miles  had  been  surveyed,  and  hundreds  of  plans, 
sketches  and  photographs  had  been  made,  so  that  a  stately 
volume  of  memoirs  could  be  published.  The  surveyed 
region  lies  in  the  southern  part  of  the  land,  the  old  Moabite 
cities  Heshbon,  Klealeh,  and  Medeba,  and  Mount  Nebo, 
forming  the  central  point. 

What  the  English,  in  this  w-ay,  did  not  succeed  in  doing, 
the   German   Palestine   Society  took  up  in  the  last  decade. 


DURING    I'.rrii   CENTURY:    PALESTINE  595 

with  better  success.  This  society  was  Hkewise  founded  (in 
the  year  1878)  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  strictly  scien- 
tific exploration  of  the  Holy  Land.  For  the  geographical 
surveys  of  the  land  itself  it  acquired  a  valuable  expert  in 
the  person  of  Dr.  Schumacher  in  Haifa.  In  the  year  1884 
he  undertook  the  survey  of  the  Jolan,  a  stretch  of  country 
extending  to  the  east  of  the  lakes  of  Tiberias  and  Hiile  as 
far  as  the  plain  of  Bashan.  In  the  following  year  this  sur- 
vey was  pursued  still  farther  towards  the  south  (south  of 
the  Yarmuk).  The  publication  in  1886  of  the  map  of  the 
Jolan,  with  a  detailed  description  of  this  district,  was  fol- 
lowed in  1897  by  the  map  of  Southern  Bashan,  which  in- 
cludes the  land  towards  the  east  as  far  as  the  mountains  of 
Hauran,  so  difficult  of  access.  Since  the  year  1889  we  have 
been  in  possession  of  the  first  map  of  the  latter  prepared  by 
the  hand  of  a  specialist.  Dr.  Stiibel,  the  geologist,  visited 
the  region  in  the  year  1882.  On  the  basis  of  his  surveys, 
and  by  utilizing  all  other  accessible  material,  the  German 
Palestine  Society  was  enabled  to  have  a  map  prepared  which, 
diverging  widely  from  former  representations,  for  the  fir§t 
time  offered  a  true  picture  of  this  region.  The  numerous 
lava  fields  of  varying  size  and  form,  the  broad  and  flat  top 
of  the  mountain  range  in  great  measure  volcanic,  and  the 
long  level  valleys  of  old  Bashan  are  the  characteristic  fea- 
tures of  this  region,  so  extraordinarilv  interesting  as  regards 
geographv  and  especially  geologv. 

These  regions  in  the  northern  part  of  the  East-Jordanic 
territory  indeed  form  but  to  a  small  extent  part  of  the  land 
of  Israel  proper,  but  they  are  often  mentioned  in  the  Old 
Testament.  The  Hauran  range  is  mentioned  in  Psalm  68: 
14,  under  its  old  name  of  Salmon,  preserved  among  the 
Greeks  in  the  form  Asalmanos;  and  in  the  same  psalm 
(verse   15)  it  is  designated  as  a  "gable-range,"  *  an  appella- 

^  The  English  version  renders  the  Hebrew  /lar  gabhnunnhu  inaccuratelv 
by  "an  high  hill  (mountain)."  — The   Editor. 


596  EXI'LOUATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

tion  which  strikingly  characterizes  the  form  of  the  range  as 
we  now  know  it.  Mention  is  also  frequently  made  of  Ba- 
shan,  the  fertile  pasture-district  with  its  magnificent  oxen  ; 
of  the  strong  cities  of  King  Og,  As(h)taroth  and  Edrei;  and 
of  other  places,  like  Golan,  Salchah,  Kenath,  etc.  A  large 
portion  of  the  region  between  the  Yarmuk  and  Jabbok 
is  already  surveyed,  and  the  map  is  in  preparation.  Here 
again  a  single  glance  at  the  new  maps  will  serve  to  show  in 
how  many  respects  our  previous  conception  regarding  this 
region  was  altogether  faulty.  The  lists  of  names,  contain- 
ing new  and  entirelv  unknown  material  to  a  far  greater  ex- 
tent than  those  of  the  country  west  of  the  Jordan,  offer  rich 
subject-matter  for  historical  geographers  to  work  upon. 

The  great  significance  of  an  accurate  knowledge  of  an- 
cient Gilead  for  the  understanding  of  the  Bible  does  not 
need  to  be  specially  emphasized.  With  the  same  painstak- 
ing care  observed  by  the  English  in  the  country  west  of 
the  Jordan,  Dr.  Schumacher  here  collected  all  manner  of 
antiquities  that  came  under  his  notice.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  further  labors  of  the  German  Palestine  Society  on  this 
territory  will  be  attended  with  the  same  successful  results, 
and  that  within  a  few  years  we  shall  have  an  exact  descrip- 
tion of  the  whole  of  Palestine  on  both  sides  of  the  Jordan, 
from  Lebanon  down  to  the  southern  end  of  the  Dead  Sea. 


Ill 


JERUSALEM 

That  to  a  certain  extent  Jerusalem  has  always  been 
looked  upon  as  the  centre  of  Palestinian  research  is  not 
strange.  Por  the  correct  understanding  of  its  history,  this 
city,  like  few  others,  imposes  upon  us  the  necessity  of  ac- 
quiring an  accurate  knowledge  of  its  topography.  But  in 
this  citv  topographical  research  also  meets  with  such  enor- 


DURING  19TII   CENTURY:    PALESTINE 


597 


mous  difficulties  as  are  found  nowhere  else.  These  grow 
out  of  the  city's  history.  More  frequently  than  any  other 
city  has  Jerusalem  been  conquered,  and  destroyed,  and  al- 
most levelled  to  the  ground  ;  and  upon  the  ruins  of  the  old 
a  new  city  always  rose  again.  In  many  places  the  debris 
that  conceals  the  old  city  from  our  sight  is  over  lOO  feet 
deep.  Laborious  and  expensive  excavations  are  therefore 
everywhere  necessary  in  order  to  arrive  at  any  degree  of 
certitude   regarding  the  form  of  the  ancient  citv.      In  many 


r'." 


Herod's  Temple,  30  b.  c,  according  to  the  Model  by  Dr.  Schick 

places  these  are  impossible,  inasmuch  as  upon  the  debris 
the  new  houses  of  the  modern  city  have  been  built,  under- 
neath which  digging  cannot  be  done. 

Owing  to  the  fanaticism  of  the  populace  which  compelled 
the  government  to  withhold  its  permission,  no  excavations 
could  be  made  during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Good  luck,  however,  led  to  many  discoveries.  The 
building  of  a  new  house,  the  walling  up  of  a  cistern  and 
like  operations  afforded  opportunities  for  seeing  something 
of  the  ground  beneath  Jerusalem,  and  thus  many  interest- 
ing facts  came  to  light.      The  indefatigable  German  archi- 


598  exflohations  in  bible  lands 

tect  Dr.  Schick,  like  a  faithful  watchman,  kept  an  eye  on 
all  such  opportunities  and  improved  them  to  the  utmost. 
He  has  now  resided  in  Jerusalem  for  over  fiftv  years,  and  is 
still  with  youthful  ardor  observing  everything  that  is  likely 
to  throw  light  on  ancient  Jerusalem.  He  has  neglected 
nothing  worth  seeing,  and  has  carefully  surveyed,  sketched, 
and  recorded  everything  that  came  under  his  notice.  Thus 
in  the  course  of  vears  an  abundance  of  material  has  been 
gathered.  During  the  last  decades  the  work  has  also  been 
facilitated  bv  the  willingness  of  the  government  to  permit 
excavations,  a  privilege  of  which  the  English  and  the  Ger- 
man Palestine  societies  availed  themselves,  so  far  as  their 
means  allowed. 

It  is  due  to  all  these  circumstances  that  in  the  last  few 
vears  our  knowledge  of  ancient  Jerusalem  has  made  suffi- 
cient progress  to  enable  us  to  come  to  a  substantial  agree- 
ment regarding  a  number  of  points  of  fundamental  impor- 
tance. It  is  now  no  longer  disputed  that  the  Temple  of 
Solomon  stood  on  the  east  hill,  about  where  the  present 
"  Dome  of  the  Rock"  [Qubbat  es-Sakhra),  also  called  the 
Mosque  of 'Omar,  stands,  or  that  the  site  of  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre  corresponds  with  that  of  the  old  Ba- 
silica of  the  Resurrection.  Onlv  twenty  years  ago  Fergus- 
son  still  maintained  that  the  Sepulchre  of  Christ  was  under 
the  Mosque  of 'Omar,  and  that  the  Temple  stood  on  the 
southwest  corner  of  the  present  Haram. 

In  order  to  come  to  a  clear  understanding  of  the  chief 
points  in  dispute,  let  us  picture  to  ourselves  the  city's  site. 
Jerusalem  is  situated  on  a  calcareous  plateau,  waterless  and 
unfertile,  a  tongue  of  land,  as  it  were,  nearly  900  acres  in 
size.  It  is  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  deep-cut  ravines. 
The  valley  of  the  Kidron  runs  on  the  east  and  northeast 
sides,  separating  the  plateau  of  Jerusalem,  first  from  the 
so-called  Scopus,  and  secondlv  from  the  Mount  ot  Olives. 
In  its  upper  course,  to  the  north  of  the  city,  it  is  broad  and 


DURING  lOrn  CENTURY:   PALESTINE  599 

flat,  but  at  the  northeast  angle  of  the  city  begins  to  become 
an  increasingly  deep  and  narrow  ravine,  with  tolerably  pre- 
cipitous sides.  The  valley  of  Hinnom  starts  in  a  flat  de- 
pression to  the  west  of  the  city,  runs  at  first  parallel  with 
the  west  wall  of  the  city  towards  the  south,  and  then  — 
rapidly  deepening  —  curves  toward  the  east  and  unites  with 
the  valley  of  the  Kidron  at  the  so-called  "  Well  of  Job," 
the  old  Fount  of  the  Fuller  (En-rogel,  Joshua  15  :  7).  At 
this  point  the  valleys  have  already  fallen  348  feet  below  the 
level  of  the  Temple  area. 

The  site  of  the  ancient  city  lying  between  these  two  val- 
leys has  undergone  important  changes  in  its  configuration 
by  reason  of  the  vast  accumulations  of  debris.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  the  tongue  of  land  above  mentioned  began  to 
split  north  from  the  present  city  wall,  and  a  considerable 
depression,  running  from  north  to  south,  divided  the  whole 
limestone  mass  into  two  parts.  The  westerly  and  wider 
part,  the  traditional  ZIon,  is  108  feet  higher  than  the  easterly 
part,  the  traditional  Moriah,  which  declines  very  precipi- 
tously to  the  east  and  west.  This  valley  is  not  mentioned 
in  the  Old  Testament;  in  the  works  of  Josephus  it  is  called 
Tyropoeon.  To-day  it  is  almost  entirely  filled  up  with  rub- 
bish, only  a  slight  trough  still  revealing  its  course.  Exca- 
vations at  the  southwest  corner  of  the  present  Haram  have 
shown  that  the  ancient  watercourse  lies  42  to  46  feet  under 
the  level  of  the  ground  as  it  is  to-day.  It  is  chieflv  due  to 
the  excavations  of  Warren  that  the  course  of  this  valley, 
which  is  of  fundamental  importance  in  establishing  the  to- 
pography of  Jerusalem,  has  been  made  known  to  us.  Rob- 
inson and  Tobler,  for  instance,  in  the  preparation  of  their 
otherwise  fundamental  works  on  the  topographv  of  Jeru- 
salem, did  not  have  an  exact  idea  like  this  of  the  original 
configuration  of  the  ground. 

Further  down,  the  two  ridges  just  mentioned  were  again 
split  by  cross  valleys   into  separate  spurs,  the  west   ridge 
44 


600  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

being  divided  by  a  small  side  valley  of  the  Tyropoeon,  com- 
ing from  the  west,  into  a  northerly  half  connecting  with  the 
high  land,  and  into  a  southerly  isolated  half.  The  east  ridge 
broke  into  three  spurs.  The  northerly  one,  also  connected 
with  the  Plateau  in  the  north,  was  separated  from  the  south 
by  a  depression  which,  running  through  under  the  north- 
east corner  of  the  present  Temple  place,  opened  into  the 
Kidron  valley  ;  the  second  or  middle  spur,  the  Temple  hill 
proper,  was  separated  from  the  third  southerly  spur  by  a 
small  ravine.  The  former  existence  of  the  latter  depression 
was  'first  disclosed  through  the  excavations  of  the  German 
Palestine  Society. 

A  word  must  be  said  with  regard  to  the  ancient  names  of 
these  hills.  It  is  a  fact  acknowledged  lately,  even  on  the 
Catholic  side,  that  the  name  Zion  belongs  to  the  east  hill  of 
Jerusalem  and  not  to  the  w^est  hill.  Through  a  misunder- 
standing of  the  Biblical  references,  tradition  has  with  great 
persistency  applied  the  name  Moriah  to  the  lower  but  more 
precipitous  east  hill,  and  the  name  Zion  to  the  higher  and. 
flatter  west  hill.  These  two  names,  however,  designate  one 
and  the  same  hill,  the  mount  on  which  the  Temple  stood, 
on  which  also  the  palace  of  David  and  Solomon  and  the 
City  of  David  are  to  be  sought.  The  results  of  the  exca- 
vations and  the  examination  of  the  ground  have  made  it 
possible,  with  still  greater  accuracy,  to  determine  the  loca- 
tion of  the  palaces  of  David  and  Solomon,  though  not  a 
trace  of  these  buildings  has  been  found. 

The  ancient  east  hill,  whose  original  form  as  it  now  lies 
buried  under  debris  has  been  ascertained  with  reasonable 
accuracy  by  means  of  excavations,  is  an  extraordinarily  nar- 
row arm  of  the  high  plateau.  Of  its  three  spurs  or  eleva- 
tions only  the  middle  one,  on  which  the  present  Haram 
stands,  has  a  fairly  level  surface  of  any  considerable  ex- 
tent, or  that  could  be  readily  made  so.  This  is  about  330 
feet  long  and  130  to  165  feet  wide.      In  situation  this  area 


DURING   lO'n  CENTURY:   PALESTINE  601 

corresponds  with  the  middle  of  the  present  Haram.  It  was 
a  place  adapted  by  nature  for  a  great  complex  of  buildings. 
Everywhere  else  on  the  east  hill,  even  in  the  most  favor- 
able case,  gigantic  substructures  would  have  been  necessary, 
in  order  to  provide  only  a  small  level  surface.  Of  such,  on 
a  large  scale,  we  cannot  think.  It  was  Herod  who,  accord- 
ing to  the  accounts  of  Josephus,  first  built  the  large  sub- 
structures which  are  still  in  existence.  We  must  rather 
assume  that  the  entire  plan  of  construction  accommodated 
itself  as  much  as  possible  to  the  exigencies  of  the  ground. 
This  being  so,  the  palace  of  Solomon  with  its  various  build- 
ings can  have  been  situated  only  to  the  southeast  of  the 
Temple,  in  the  direction  of  the  ridge.  From  the  north- 
west corner,  the  place  of  the  ancient  Antonia,  the  surface  of 
the  rock  steadily  and  very  considerably  declines  to  the  south- 
east. Consequently  the  palace  buildings  lay  somewhat  lower 
than  the  Temple.  A  person  went  up  from  the  palace  to 
the  Temple  (compare  Jeremiah  26:10  and  many  other 
passages.)  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  said  that  Solomon 
brought  the  ark  up  from  the  old  City  of  David  to  the  new 
sanctuary,  and  that  Pharaoh's  daughter  came  up  to  the  new 
women's  house  ;  therefore  Solomon's  palace  lay  higher  up 
than  the  City  of  David.  The  latter,  identical  with  the  an- 
cient Jebus  (2  Sam.  5  :  6  among  other  passages),  therefore 
lay  still  further  to  the  southeast  on  the  most  southerly  of 
the  three  spurs  or  elevations  of  Zion.  Here  also  was  an 
entirely  suitable  place  for  a  mighty  fortress.  Although 
somewhat  higher  and  wider,  the  western  hill  was  readily 
accessible  from  the  northwest,  and  the  slopes  to  the  south 
and  east  were  by  no  means  particularly  steep.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  statement  that  "  the  blind  and  lame  were  able  to 
keep  an  enemy  at  a  distance  "  (2  Sam.  5  : 6)  fits  the  almost 
perpendicularly  precipitous  rock  sides  of  the  eastern  hill 
very  well.  The  question  of  the  water  supply  must  also 
have    had    decisive    influence    in    establishing    the    ancient 


602  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Stronghold  of  the  Jebusites  and  the  City  of  David  at  this 
particular  place.  While  the  western  hill  is  over  a  large  area 
entirely  waterless  and  without  a  spring  of  any  kind,  there 
gushes  forth  at  the  eastern  base  of  the  eastern  hill  the  copi- 
ous perennial  St.  Mary's  Well,  as  it  is  now  called,  which 
doubtless  corresponds  to  the  ancient  Gihon  (i  Kings  i  :  23)' 

The  two  great  problems  of  the  topography  of  Jerusalem, 
with  which  all  other  important  questions  are  really  more  or 
less  connected,  are  the  questions  in  regard  to  the  course  of 
the  city  wall  and  the  genuineness  of  the  Church  of  the  Sep- 
ulchre. These  are  themselves  again  closely  connected  with 
each  other,  for  the  answering  of  the  latter  question  depends 
to  a  certain  degree  on  the  determination  of  the  course  of 
the  wall.  The  excavations  of  the  English  and  German 
Palestine  societies  in  the  last  two  decades  have  primarily 
had  for  their  object  this  fixing  of  the  course  of  the  wall. 
Neither  problem  has  yet  been  solved,  but  on  some  impor- 
tant points  certainty  has  nevertheless  been  reached  by  the 
past  excavations. 

The  city,  as  Josephus  tells  us,  was  protected  by  three 
walls.  To  speak  more  accurately,  the  wall  on  the  southern 
half  was  single,  the  steep  slopes  of  the  hills  and  the  deep- 
cut  ravines  forming  a  natural  defence  for  the  city.  It  was 
different  in  the  north,  where  the  plateau  of  the  city  connects 
with  the  remaining  highland  ;  here  there  was  always  unob- 
structed access,  on  account  of  which  the  city  on  that  side 
required  especially  strong  fortifications.  With  the  growth 
of  the  city  there  arose  here  in  the  course  of  time  three  lines 
of  wall. 

The  first  wall  is  the  one  that  ran  around  the  city  at  the 
most  remote  period.  As  Nehemiah  in  rebuilding  the  wall 
kept  to  the  old  line,  the  wall  of  the  pre-exilic  city  corre- 
sponds to  his  wall.  Through  the  various  excavations  the 
course  of  this  wall  on  the  southern  half  has  now  been  com- 
pletely established.     According  to  Josephus,  it  started  on 


DURING  19TI1  CENTURY:   PALESTINE 


603 


the  west  from  the  place  of  the  later  Hippicus,  the  present 
Dav^Id's  Tower,  at  the  citadel  near  the  Jaffa  Gate.  While 
Bishop  Gobat's  school  was  being  built  on  the  southwestern 
part  of  the  west  ridge,  remains  of  a  wall  were  found,  which 
Tobler  correctly  assigned  to  the  oldest  wall.  A  little  to  the 
south  of  this,  Maudslay,  in  1 874,  found  the  artificially  cut  off 
scarp  of  rock  which  here  supported  the  wall.      In  making  his 


The  so-called  Tower  of  David 


excavations  in  the  southeast  of  the  Haram  area  on  the  so- 
called  hill  of  Ophel,  Warren  likewise  found  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  wall.  Farther  south  from  the  latter,  also  on 
the  east  side  of  the  eastern  hill,  Guthe  discovered  various 
portions  of  it.  But  most  important  of  all  is  the  fact  that  the 
latest  excavations  of  the  English  Palestine  Exploration  Fund 
under  the  direction  of  Bliss,  in  the  year  1897,  restored  the 
connection  between  these  points  in  the  southwest  corner 
as  well  as  the  southeast. 


604  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Accordingly  the  old  city  wall  ran  around  the  southern 
edge  of  the  western  hill,  and  then  crossed  the  Tyropoeon 
vallev  running  eastward  in  a  tolerably  straight  line,  the 
southeast  corner  of  the  wall  being  close  by  the  old  pool  of 
Siloam,  which  lay  within  the  city  wall.  Thence  the  wall  ran 
up  on  the  east  side  of  the  eastern  hill  to  the  southeast  corner 
of  the  present  Haram  and  apparently  outside  this  area,  to 
the  Golden  Gate  at  the  east  side  of  the  Haram  wall.  The 
course  of  the  wall  on  the  north,  though  not  similarly  estab- 
lished bv  excavations,  is  nevertheless  in  the  main  indicated 
by  the  condition  of  the  ground.  It  could  follow  only  the 
above-mentioned  side  vallev  of  the  Tyropoeon  at  the  edge 
of  the  hill,  and  then  cross  the  valley  where  it  was  somewhat 
level,  so  as  to  join  the  west  wall  of  the  Temple.  This  part 
of  the  first  w'all  was  not  restored  by  Nehemiah,  but  his  wall 
here  rather  followed  the  course  of  the  so-called  second  wall. 

The  second  wall,  built  bv  Hezekiah,  had  its  starting-point 
on  the  w^est  at  the  Gate  of  Gennat  close  to  the  Tower  of 
Phasael,  which,  somewhat  to  the  east  of  the  Hippicus,  pro- 
tected the  Palace  of  Herod.  Here  traces  of  the  wall  still 
exist.  It  has  likewise  been  definitely  ascertained  that  its 
terminus  is  near  the  present  Antonia  in  the  northwest  corner 
of  the  temple  area.  Regarding  the  portion  of  the  wall  be- 
tween, the  discussion  is,  however,  still  very  animated.  The 
question  is  whether  the  wall  ran  from  the  Tower  of  Phasael 
in  a  narrow  curve  south  and  east  of  the  present  Church  of  the 
Sepulchre,  or  with  a  greater  curve  north  of  the  church,  cor- 
responding in  part  to  the  modern  city  wall.  On  this  ques- 
tion depends  also  another  concerning  the  genuineness  of  the 
Church  of  the  Sepulchre,  in  so  far  as  every  possibility  of  its 
genuineness  is  excluded  from  the  start,  if  the  Church  of  the 
Sepulchre  is  situated  within  this  wall.  For  according  to  the 
express  testimony  of  the  Bible  Golgotha  must  have  been 
situated  outside  the  city  wall  (comp.  John  19:17,  Heb. 
13  :  12,  and  elsewhere). 


DURING   IDTii  CENTURY:   PALESTINE 


605 


In  spite  of  the  claims  made  by  those  who  advocate  the 
genuineness  of  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre  and  who  con- 
tend for  the  southward  course  of  the  second  wall,  the  ques- 
tion must  nevertheless  be  looked  upon  as  still  entirely 
undecided.  Schick  rests  his  theory,  that  the  wall  ran  south 
and  east  of  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre,  substantially  upon 


Russian  Exploration  near  the  Holy  Sepulchre 

the  new  discoveries  which  were  made  by  the  Russian  Pales- 
tine Society  in  connection  with  the  excavations  for  the 
Hospice  east  of  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre.  These  are 
parts  of  an  ancient  ditch  hewn  out  of  the  natural  rock,  to- 
gether with  the  remains  of  walls.  Schick  regards  these  as 
remains  of  the  second  wall  and  of  the  city  moat.  His  ex- 
planation, however,  is  not  convincing  in  itself,  and  there 
stand  opposed  to  it  important  considerations  of  a  general 
nature.  The  elevation  of  the  modern  Golgotha  and,  more 
important  still,  the  dominating  hill  at  the  northwest  corner 


606  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

of  the  present  city  wall,  are  thus  left  lying  outside  the 
second  wall,  which  would  have  run  pretty  far  down  along 
the  slope  of  the  excluded  northern  elevation  of  the  west  hill. 
And  had  this  been  the  course  of  the  wall,  Jerusalem  could 
in  no  wise  have  accommodated  its  great  population  at  the 
time  of  Christ,  even  if  we  place  the  number  much  lower  than 
Josephus,  w'ho  in  one  place  speaks  of  2,700,000  people 
celebrating  the  Passover  festival.  For  this  very  reason 
Robinson  first  maintained  that  this  second  wall  ran  farther 
north,  a  considerable  part  corresponding  with  the  present 
city  wall,  in  which  various  remains  of  ancient  walls  have 
likewise  been  discovered. 

These  latter  are  explained  by  the  champions  of  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  as  belonging  to  the  third 
wall.  This  wall,  which  branched  off  near  the  Hippicus, 
was  built  by  Agrippa  I.  in  order  to  include  the  northern 
suburb  within  the  city  limits.  It  was  constructed  of  huge 
square  stones,  and  is  said  to  have  had  ninety  towers.  The 
strongest  of  these  was  the  so-called  Psephinus,  at  the  north- 
west corner,  at  the  highest  point  of  the  city,  apparently  still 
preserved  in  the  so-called  castle  of  Goliath,  at  least  in  the 
substructures.  The  wall  was  not  completed,  the  emperor 
forbidding  its  continuation.  Those  that  would  extend  the 
second  wall  on  the  north  up  to  the  present  city  wall  must 
allow  the  third  wall  to  extend  farther  to  the  north,  where 
Robinson  discovered,  at  an  average  distance  of  440-550 
vards  from  the  present  wall,  great  blocks  of  stone  which  he 
explained  as  remains  of  a  wall.  The  whole  question  can 
be  decided  onlv  through  renewed  excavations.  In  the  in- 
terest of  an  exact  topography  of  Jerusalem  it  would  be  a 
great  pity  if  the  investigations  in  this  region  should  be  pre- 
maturely concluded  and  the  question  at  issue  considered 
definitely  solved. 


LURING  19TU   CENTURY:   PALESTINE  607 

IV 

ARCH^OLOGICAL    RESULTS 

The  strictly  archaeological  material  that  the  excavations 
have  thus  far  brought  to  light  cannot  of  course  be  compared 
with  the  rich  discoveries  that  have  been  made  in  Egypt  and 
Babylonia.  This  in  part  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  excava- 
tions were  mostly  pursued  with  the  fixed  purpose  of  deter- 
mining the  topography  of  Jerusalem.  Royal  tombs  as  in 
Egypt,  or  such  vast  buildings  and  ostentatious  inscriptions 
as  in  Egypt  and  in  Babylonia,  have  not  yet  been  brought  to 
light,  as  can  be  readily  understood.  To  a  certain  degree 
they  will  never  be  found  in  Palestine,  inasmuch  as  the  Jews 
were  and  are  a  people  without  art.  One  cannot  escape  a 
feeling  of  envy  when  he  contrasts  with  the  poverty  of  the 
Palestinian  monuments  the  new  discoveries  which  are,  for  in- 
stance, continually  made  in  Egypt,  and  which  gradually  give 
an  unbroken  picture  of  the  whole  development  of  the  men- 
tal life  of  the  people.  It  can  be  confidently  asserted,  how- 
ever, that  the  soil  of  Palestine  also  still  contains  within  its 
bosom  much  that  is  valuable.  If  the  Moabite  king  Mesha 
perpetuated  his  great  exploits  on  stone,  a  Jeroboam  II.  or 
a  Hezekiah  may  have  done  the  same  thing.  The  places  in 
which  such  inscriptions  must  be  supposed  to  exist,  e.  g.y 
Samaria,  are  as  yet  quite  unexplored.  Just  as  Tell  el-Hesy, 
one  of  the  few  mounds  so  far  excavated,  at  once  yielded 
an  unexpected  result,  so  many  others  in  the  land  may  hide 
destroyed  cities  under  the  surface. 

In  the  spring  of  1890  Flinders  Petrie,  who  had  become 
famous  through  the  magnificent  results  of"  his  excavations 
in  Egypt,  was  sent  to  Palestine  by  the  English  Palestine 
Exploration  Fund,  in  order  to  search  for  the  site  of  the  an- 
cient Lachish,  which  was  supposed   to   be   represented  by 


608  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Umm  Lakis.  Petrie  soon  saw  that  nothing  was  to  be  found 
there  and  accordingly  commenced  work  on  a  mound  in  the 
neighborhood,  called  Tell  el-Hesy,  which  seemed  to  him  to 
promise  particularly  good  results.  He  was  not  disappointed. 
Though  he  found  neither  splendid  buildings  nor  inscrip- 
tions, he  nevertheless  succeeded  in  bringing  to  view  the  suc- 
cessive periods  of  the  history  of  Lachish  in  the  layers  of 
debris  which  lay  one  upon  the  other.  At  the  top,  almost 
on  the  surface,  he  came  upon  remains  of  Greek  times  of 
about  450  B.  c.  Deep  underneath,  forty-five  feet  below 
ground,  he  uncovered  ruins  of  the  time  of  the  eighteenth 
Egyptian  dvnasty,  i.  e.,  about  1400  b,  c.  In  the  middle, 
twenty  feet  under  the  surface,  the  potsherds  he  discovered 
proved  to  be  Old-Phenician,  belonging  to  about  the  ninth 
centurv.  The  fact  here  strikingly  brought  out,  that  in  each 
century  the  height  of  the  debris  increased  on  an  average 
five  feet,  was  likewise  confirmed  wherever  Petrie  took  the 
depth  as  an  index  for  the  age.  The  picture  of  the  city  so 
often  destroyed  and  rebuilt,  rose  anew  before  the  eyes  of 
the  explorer.  The  ramparts  of  the  oldest  period,  behind 
which  the  inhabitants  perhaps  sought  protection  against  the 
Egyptian  invasions,  are  no  less  discernible  than  the  walls 
of  a  higher  stratum,  which  may  be  the  fortifications  of 
Rehoboam  mentioned  in  the  Bible  (2  Chron.  11:9).  New 
walls  again  arose  on  the  top  of  these,  till  finally  Nebuchad- 
rezzar besieged  and  no  doubt  also  destroyed  the  city,  about 
590  B.  c.  (Jer.  34  :  7).  After  that  the  city  was  left  with- 
out walls.  The  discoveries  show  that  it  was  still  populated 
as  an  open  city  after  the  return  of  the  Jews  in  the  second 
half  of  the  fifth  century,  but  only  to  become  desolate  again 
in  a  short  time.  The  settlement,  it  appears,  was  soon 
transferred  from  here  to  another  place. 

After  the  excavations  in  tracing  the  course  of  the  wall  at 
Jerusalem  (comp.  above,  pp.  boi^seqq.)  were  completed,  the 
English    Palestine    Exploration    Fund    in    1899   and    1900 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   PALESTINE  609 

continued  the  exploration  of  the  numerous  mounds  by  mak- 
ing excavations  at  Tell  Zakariya  and  Tell  es-Safi,  in  the  so- 
called  Schephelah,  on  the  western  slope  of  the  mountains 
of  Judea,  toward  the  sea.  The  first-named  place  is  usually 
supposed  to  be  the  Azekah  of  the  Old  Testament,  a  fortifi- 
cation of  Judah,  built  by  Rehoboam  (2  Chron.  11:9),  and 
besieged  by  Nebuchadrezzar  (Jer.  34  :  7).  Here  the  exca- 
vations again  revealed  many  interesting  and  important  facts 
regarding  the  history  of  the  place.  Even  in  pre-Israelitish 
times  it  was  inhabited  ;  in  the  time  of  Israel  it  was  twice  for- 
tified, and  also  for  a  short  time  occupied  by  the  Romans. 

The  other  inount.  Tell  es-Safi,  is  by  many  scholars  be- 
lieved to  mark  a  still  more  celebrated  spot  of  the  ancient 
world,  namely,  the  old  Philistian  city  of  Gath.  Unfortu- 
nately the  excavations  have  disclosed  no  inscriptions  nor 
anything  similar  to  substantiate  this  theory.  In  fact  no 
inscriptions  were  found  ;  yet  even  here,  the  deposits  of  the 
debris,  and  the  earthen  vessels  imbedded  in  the  different 
layers,  go  to  show  that  the  place  was  uninterruptedly  inhab- 
ited from  the  earliest  pre-exilic  time  until  the  late  Greek 
period,  and  that  in  Israelitic  times  it  must  have  been  an 
important  fortification.  Insignificant  as  the  relics  found  at 
these  places  may  seem,  consisting,  as  they  do,  only  of  clay 
vessels,  potsherds,  small  images,  etc.,  they  nevertheless 
demonstrate  in  a  most  interesting  way  that  Mycenean  art 
at  one  time  extended  its  influence  even  into  these  regions 
of  Southern  Palestine. 

The  most  recent  excavations  of  the  Palestine  Explora- 
tion Fund  were  again  in  charge  of  Dr.  Bliss,  assisted  by  Mr. 
Stewart  Macalister.  In  the  course  of  1900  they  were  carried 
on  at  Tell  ej-Judaida  and  Tell  Sandahanna.  In  connection 
with  the  former,  the  recovery  of  thirtv-seven  jar-handles 
with  royal  stamps  showing  the  names  of  four  different  towns 
(one  of  which  is  otherwise  unknown)  must  be  regarded 
as  the  most  important  find.      It  was  unfortunate  that  the 


610  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

English  Exploration  Fund,  after  a  successful  examination  of 
but  a  small  portion  of  the  whole  area  of  this  interesting  ruin, 
abandoned  Tell  ej-Judaida  again,  without  having  been  able 
to  identify  the  name  of  the  ancient  town  which  occupied 
this  place  at  the  time  of  the  Hebrew  kings. 

Short  as  the  excavations  at  Sandahanna  (so-called  from 


Plan  of  the  Excavated  Upper  Town  of  Tell  Sandahanna 

the  neighboring  ruined  church  of  St.  Anne)  were,  they  have 
furnished  a  complete  picture  of  the  appearance  of  a  Jewish 
town  of  the  Seleucidan  times,  with  its  gates,  streets,  open 
places  and  houses.  It  also  became  evident,  from  a  clearing 
of  an  area  of  fifty  feet  by  thirty  feet  carried   down  to  the 


DURING  IQTH  CENTURY:   PALESTINE  611 

rock,  that  an  earlier  Jewish  town  going  back  to  about  800 
B.  c.  previously  occupied  this  site.  Of  especial  importance 
is  the  discovery  of  fifty  tablets  of  soft  limestone,  inscribed 
in  Greek  and  Hebrew  (four  of  them),  and  sixteen  small  fig- 
ures in  lead  representing  chained  men  and  women.  Not 
without  reason  Bliss  is  inclined  to  identify  the  excavated 
site  with  the  ruins  of  Mareshah  (Josh.  15  :  44),  which 
seems  to  have  had  a  continuous  history  from  pre-Israel- 
itish  times  until  the  first  century  of  our  era.^ 

No  less  do  the  other  discoveries  which  have  been  made 
give  grounds  for  high  hopes.  In  the  year  1868  a  German 
minister,  the  Rev.  F.  Klein,  discovered  at  Diban,  the  ruins 
of  the  ancient  Dibon  (Daibon),  royal  city  of  Moab,  a  large 
stone  with  an  inscription  of  King  Mesha  of  Moab.  He 
succeeded  in  purchasing  the  stone  for  the  Berlin  Museum. 
Through  French  interference,  however,  the  stone  never  came 
into  the  possession  of  the  purchasers.  Before  it  reached 
any  European  country,  the  Bedouins,  on  whose  territory  it 
stood,  demolished  it  in  the  hope  of  finding  treasures  hidden 
in  it.  The  fragments  of  the  stone,  so  far  as  they  were  still 
to  be  obtained,  are  now  in  the  Louvre  at  Paris.  A  squeeze 
fortunately  taken  before  the  stone  was  shattered  made  it 
possible  at  least  to  read  the  whole  inscription  in  its  connec- 
tion. In  external  form  the  stone  resembles  that  of  the  As- 
syrian royal  steles  of  Esarhaddon  in  the  British  Museum  or 
of  Sargon  in  the  Berlin  Museum.  The  Mesha  stone,  how- 
ever, has  no  picture  of  the  king,  but  merely  an  inscription 
of  thirty-four  lines.  As  the  earliest  monument  of  the 
Hebrew  language  and  writing,  this  inscription  has  a  unique 

^  The  brief  synopsis  of  the  excavations  at  Tell  ej-Judaida  and  Tell  San- 
dahanna  was  added  by  the  editor.  Fora  more  detailed  account  of  the  English 
excavations  at  Tell  Zakariya,  Tell  es-Safi,  Tell  ej-Judaida  and  Tell  Sanda- 
hanna,  compare  my  articles  in  the  "Sunday-School  Times,"  Sept.  9, 
1899  ;  Oct.  14,  1899  ;  Dec.  23,  1899  ;  Oct.  6,  1900  ;  Jan.  26,  1 90 1. 
—  The  Editor. 


612 


EXPLORATIONS   IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


importance,  not  only  tor  Hebrew  grammar  but  especially 
also  for  palaeography.  We  have  here  the  earliest  Semitic 
alphabet  accessible  to  us,  and  on  this  account  the  monu- 
ment, with  its  fre- 
quently new  forms, 
also  bears  upon  the 
evolution  ot  Gt-eek 
writing. 

Its  contents  are  a 
valuable  complement 
of  the  Biblical  narra- 
tive in  2  Kings  3. 
Mesha  is  a  contem- 
porary of  Ahaziah 
and  Jehoram,  kings 
of  Israel,  and  Jeho- 
s  hap  hat,  king  of 
Judah.  The  Bible 
relates  how  Jehoram 
and  Jehoshaphat 
made  a  combined 
attempt  to  subjugate 
again  the  kingdom 
of  Moab  which  had 
revolted.  Mesha  on 
his  stone  recounts 
the  events  that  led 
up  to  this  war,  and  relates  how  Omri,  king  of  Israel,  and 
his  son  Ahab  oppressed  Moab  and  took  possession  of 
the  land  of  Medeba.  By  the  grace  of  Chemosh,  god  of  the 
Moabites,  Mesha  recovered  the  land.  He  took  from  the 
Israelites  the  fortified  towns  of  Ataroth,  Nebo  and  others  ; 
and  in  honor  of  Chemosh  put  the  garrison  of  Ataroth  to 
death.  He  also  rebuilt  a  number  of  other  Israelitish  cities 
which  apparently  had  been  abandoned  by  their  inhabitants^ 


Victory  Stele  of  King  Mesha  of  Moab 


■^ 


DURING  19 rn  CENTURY:   PALESTINE  613 

Another  monument,  that  in  point  of  time  is  not  so  very- 
far  removed  from  this  monument,  is  the  Siloam  inscription. 
This  was  found  in  1880  by  some  boys  (while  bathing)  in 
the  conduit  which  connects  St.  Mary's  Well  with  the  Pool 
of  Siloam,  not  far  from  its  outlet  into  the  latter.  The  Ger- 
man Palestine  Society  immediately  had  it  more  closely  ex- 
amined. In  order  to  make  the  inscription,  which  lay  partly 
in  water,  entirely  accessible,  the  water  in  the  conduit  had  to 
be  lowered  by  cleaning  the  bottom.  Then  Shick  and  Guthe 
made  several  copies  and  squeezes  of  the  inscription.  Guthe 
also  succeeded  in  preparing  a  plaster  cast  of  it.  On  account 
of  the  peculiar  conditions,  these  were  all  very  difficult  oper- 
ations, and  in  consequence  of  the  foul  air  in  the  conduit 
Dr.  Shick  was  taken  ill. 

It  is  due  to  the  labors  of  these  men  that  the  text  of  the 
Siloam  inscription  has  in  the  main  been  ascertained,  though 
later  it  met  with  a  fate  similar  to  that  of  the  Mesha  stone. 
A  certain  unscrupulous  person,  with  an  eye  to  business, 
undertook  to  steal  the  inscription,  by  breaking  it  out  of  the 
rock  ;  and,  as  may  be  imagined,  it  was  seriously  damaged. 
Fortunately  the  Ottoman  government  succeeded  in  capturing 
the  thief  and  his  plunder,  and  the  fragments  of  the  inscrip- 
tion ^  are  now  in  Constantinople. 

The  inscription  mentions  no  king,  but  appears  to  be 
merely  a  private  production,  so  to  speak  ;  in  other  words, 
not  an  order  of  the  sovereign,  but  the  impulse  of  the  work- 
men led  to  its  being  cut.  Its  contents  refer  to  the  digging 
of  the  conduit,  the  completion  of  which  it  evidently  cele- 
brates. It  describes  how  at  the  piercing  of  the  conduit  the 
sharp  picks  of  the  diggers,  who  had  begun  at  the  opposite 
ends  and  worked  towards  each  other,  suddenly  met ;  how 
when  three  cubits  still  remained  to  be  pierced,  the  workmen 

^  Together  with  a  cleverly  made  forgery,  though  no  exact  copy  of  the  same 
inscription,  which  is  now  also  exhibited  at  the  Imperial  Ottoman   Museum 
in  Constantinople.  —  The  Editor. 
45 


614 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  lilBLE  LANDS 


heard  one  another's  voices  ;  and  how  after  the  completion 
of  the  work,  the  water  poured  into  the  pool  a  distance  of 
1 200  cubits.  The  spot  where  the  diggers  met  was  100 
cubits  beneath  the  surface  of  the  rock. 

The  construction  of  the  conduit  and  hence  the  date  of 
the  inscription  can  with  all  confidence  be  put  in  the  time  oi' 
Hezekiah.     To  insure  for  the  city,  in   case  of  its  siege,  a 


The  Siloam  Inscription 


supply  of  the  excellent  water  from  the  spring  Gihon,  situated 
outside  its  walls,  must  at  an  early  period  have  occupied  the 
thought  of  the  kings.  A  conduit  discovered  by  Dr.  Shick 
in  1890,  which  conveyed  the  water  to  the  Pool  of  Siloam 
overground,  was  probably  the  first  attempt  in  this  direction. 
This  latter  may  be  referred  to  in  Is.  8  :  6,  where,  as  early 
as  the  time  of  Ahaz,  the  "  waters  that  go  softly  "  are  men- 
tioned. Naturally  this  conduit  would  not  have  answered  in 
time  of  war,  inasmuch  as  it  lay  almost  entirely  outside  the 
wall  and  exposed  to  the  enemy.  Hence  the  later  attempt 
to  reach  the  reservoir  of  the  spring  from  the  inside  of  the 
city  by  the  construction  of  a  subterranean  passage,  com- 
pletely protected  from  the  enemy. 

A  last  endeavor  was  to  put  the  spring  itself  and  its  water 
out  of  the  reach  of  a  besieging  enemy,  so   that  the  latter  in 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY :   PALESTINE  615 

turn  might  suffer  from  want  of  water.  The  Siloam  conduit 
in  which  the  inscription  was  found  served  just  this  purpose. 
It  conveyed  the  water  entirely  underground  to  the  Poo]  of 
Siloam,  which  lay  farther  below  in  the  Kidron  Valley,  but 
inside  the  city  wall.  The  conduit  is  cut  through  the  rock 
in  a  rather  crude  manner;  here  and  there  even  a  rift  in  the 
rock  appears  to  have  been  utilized.  The  length  of  the 
conduit  is  about  583  yards.  The  1200  cubits  (about  689 
yards)  mentioned  in  the  inscription  is  probably  only  an  es- 
timate. In  a  straight  line  the  termini  are  only  ;^66  yards 
apart,  the  difference  being  due  to  the  very  tortuous  course 
of  the  conduit.  The  statement  in  the  inscription  that  the 
conduit  was  begun  from  both  ends  inward  is  borne  out  by 
the  fact  that  the  strokes  of  the  chisel  in  the  southern  half 
go  in  an  opposite  direction  from  those  in  the  northern  half. 
This  also  accounts  most  readily  for  the  winding  course  of 
the  conduit.  The  place  where  the  workmen  met  may  like- 
wise still  be  recognized.  We  can  also  clearly  see  how  the 
men,  before  they  succeeded,  and  depending  on  the  sound 
of  their  picks,  made  repeated  but  futile  attempts  to  meet. 
The  blind  passages  to  be  found,  which  are  in  reality  aban- 
doned galleries,  also  show  that  even  long  before  they  met, 
they  more  than  once  abandoned  the  course  they  were  fol- 
lowing and  took  another.  That  they  should  nevertheless 
finally  come  together  in  this  subterranean  passage  is  a  per- 
formance worthy  of  all  recognition.  We  can  explain  it  only 
on  the  theory  that  the  one  or  the  other  of  the  upward 
shafts,  which  are  still  in  existence,  served  also  for  giving  the 
workmen  the  direction. 

The  discoveries  in  Sidon  bring  us  to  a  later  period.  The 
unimportant  little  town  of  Saida  was  to  all  intents  com- 
pletely unknown  until  the  year  1855,  when  the  attention 
of  all  Orientalists  was  drawn  to  it  by  the  discovery  of  the 
sarcophagus  of  King  Eshmunazar.  To  the  east  of  the  town 
there  is  a  large  necropolis.     Hewn  into  the  lower  ridges  of 


616  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

the  calcareous  mountain-chain  that  juts  out  from  the  shore 
are  a  great  mass  of  tombs.  In  one  of  these  was  found  a 
remarkable  sarcophagus  of  black  basalt  bearing  a  long  in- 
scription of  990  words.  It  is  written  in  Phenician  char- 
acters, is  very  well  engraved  and  in  an  excellent  state  of 
preservation.  Along  with  the  Mesha  stone  and  the  Siloam 
inscription  it  is  the  most  important  of  all  the  Semitic  in- 
scriptions found  in  Syria. 

It  narrates  that  Eshmunazar,  son  of  Tabnith,  King  of 
Sidon,  built  his  tomb  himself.  He  adjures  the  entire  king- 
dom "  that  no  man  open  this  bed  of  rest  and  no  one  seek 
for  trinkets, — for  no  trinket  is  to  be  found, —  and  that 
no  one  remove  the  stone  of  my  bed  of  rest."  A  heavy 
curse  is  laid  upon  him  who  nevertheless  disturbs  the  rest 
of  the  dead  :  "  May  he  not  have  a  bed  of  rest  with  the  dead, 
and  may  he  not  be  interred  in  a  tomb,  and  may  he  not  have 
a  son  in  his  stead."  As  an  interesting  historical  fact  we 
learn  that  Eshmunazar  extended  the  boundaries  of  Sidon  by 
the  conquest  of  Dor  and  Joppa,  "  the  magnificent  lands  of 
Dagon,  that  are  in  the  plain  of  Sharon."  Because  of  this 
service  every  one  is  once  more  adjured  to  honor  the  rest  of 
the  dead,  "  lest  the  offender  and  his  seed  be  cut  off  forever." 
It  is  to  be  noticed  how  these  expressions  are  identical  with 
the  Biblical  manner  of  expression.  No  less  do  these  forms 
of  cursing  remind  one  of  the  inscriptions  on  the  Nabatean 
tombs  or  of  those  that  are  often  found  in  the  tombs  of 
Egyptian  notables.  The  ideas  that  we  here  meet  are  ex- 
traordinarily significant  for  the  Phenician  religion.  The 
greatest  punishment  with  which  the  transgressor  is  threat- 
ened is  that  he  should  rest  in  no  tomb  and  have  no  son. 
These  views  are  quite  the  same  as  those  found  among  the 
ancient  Israelites.  Eshmunazar  probably  lived  in  the  first 
half  of  the  fourth  century  before  Christ. 

Induced  by  these  discoveries,  the  French  expedition  which 
under  Renan   in  1860  to    t86i    investigated  the   Phenician 


DURING   19TII  CENTURY:  PALESTINE  617 

coast,  among  other  things,  devoted  itself  especially  to  the 
necropolis  of  Sidon.  Renan  carefully  examined  the  tombs 
which  he  found  and  discovered  numerous  other  beautiful 
sarcophagi.  Most  of  them,  and  in  many  respects  even  the 
arrangement  of  the  tombs,  remind  one  of  Egyptian  ceme- 
teries. This  is  another  proof  of  the  great  influence  exer- 
cised by  Kgypt  on  the  development  of  Phenician  civilization. 
The  Egyptians  furnished  the  originals,  the  Phenicians  imi- 
tated them. 

The  other  discoveries  of  the  expedition  were  no  less 
valuable  for  the  investigation  of  the  whole  mental  life  of 
the  Phenicians,  above  all  of  their  religion  and  art.  As  re- 
gards the  latter,  attention  is  directed  to  but  a  single  point, 
which  will  clearly  show  how  much  the  civilization  of  the 
Israelites  was  dependent  upon  the  art  of  the  Phenicians. 
The  conclusion  drawn  from  the  results  of  his  investigations 
of  Phenician  buildings  Renan  gives  in  the  following  char- 
acterization of  Phenician  architecture  :  "  The  principle  of 
architecture  is  the  hewn  rock,  not  as  in  Greece  the  pillar. 
The  wall  supplies  the  place  of  the  hewn  rock  without  en- 
tirely losing  this  character."  This  description  applies  also 
word  for  word  to  Hebrew  structures.  They  also  have  no 
pillars  ;  when  such  are  found  (as  they  are  reported  to  have 
been  in  Solomon's  so-called  "  house  of  the  forest  of  Leb- 
anon," I  Ki.  7  :  2)  they  are  explained  by  the  influence  of 
North  Syrian  architecture.  Old  Hebrew  architecture,  like 
the  Phenician,  had  a  predilection  for  massive  squared  stone 
structures ;  the  more  massive  the  squared  stones,  the  more 
closely  the  wall  resembles  a  natural  precipice. 

The  treasures  of  the  necropolis  of  ancient  Sidon  were  not 
all  recovered  by  the  French  Expedition.  Many  a  tomb, 
whose  entrance  lay  concealed  beneath  the  ground,  escaped 
Kenan's  searching  eye.  So  much  the  more  carefully  did 
the  inhabitants  of  that  region  dig  for  hidden  treasures  in 
their  fields  and  gardens ;  and  the  results  obtained  prompted 


618  EXPLORATIONS  IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

the  Ottoman  government  to   send  Hamdy  Bey,  Director 

General  of  the  Imperial  Archaeological  Museum  at  Con- 
stantinople, to  Sidon  in  order  to  make  fresh  investigations 
at  the  place.  These  again  brought  to  light  magnificent 
sarcophagi,  among  them  that  of  Tabnith,  the  father  of  the 
above-mentioned  P.shmunazar,  an  inscription  upon  which 
agreed  in  part  verbatim  with  the  inscription  on  Eshmunazar's 
coffin.  In  connection  with  this  sarcophagus  it  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  no  effort  had  even  been  made  to  remove 
the  old  hieroglvphic  inscription  and  design.  In  this  latter 
inscription  the  sarcophagus  is  said  originally  to  have  been 
the  tomb  of  an  Egyptian  general.  The  Phenician  inscrip- 
tion was  simply  placed  beneath  the  Egyptian.  When  the 
coffin  was  found  it  still  contained  the  well  preserved  body 
of  Tabnith  lying  in  an  unknown  fluid. 

The  so-called  Alexander  sarcophagus,  however,  surpasses 
all  the  other  great  and  rich  discoveries  made  by  Hamdy 
Bey.  It  is  a  masterpiece  of  art  from  the  best  period  of 
the  Diadochs.  It  certainly  is  not  the  coffin  of  Alexander 
the  Great  himself,  as  has  been  supposed,  for  Alexander  lies 
buried  in  Alexandria,  and  his  mausoleum  was  repeatedly 
visited  by  Roman  emperors ;  but  it  is  the  coffin  of  one 
that  stood  near  him,  of  one  of  his  great  generals.  Above 
all,  it  is  a  W'ork  of  art  of  the  first  rank,  and  fills  every  one 
that  sees  it  with  admiration. 

Of  quite  another  sort  is  the  most  recent  archaeological 
find  made  on  the  soil  of  Palestine.  In  the  fall  of  1896,  in 
Madaba,  as  the  Greeks  were  building  a  new  church  on  the 
ruins  of  an  old  basilica,  a  portion  of  the  mosaic  floor  of  the 
old  church  came  to  light.  This  mosaic  was  found  to  repre- 
sent nothing  less  than  a  map  of  Syria,  Palestine  and  Egypt. 
The  greater  part  of  it  is  unfortunately  destroyed.  Only 
remnants  of  the  map  of  Palestine  and  Egypt  are  preserved, 
amounting  to  about  fortv-nine  square  vards  in  extent,  being 
in    part  of  admirable    execution.      The    difference    between 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY:   PALESTINE  f'>19 

plain  and  highland  is  strikingly  expressed  by  the  artist. 
The  valley  of  the  Jordan,  the  plain  of  Sharon,  and  the 
wilderness  of  Mount  Sinai  are  distinguished  from  the  dark 
mountains  of  Judea  by  being  colored  light.  A  deep  green 
indicates  the  Dead  Sea,  while  white  and  light  blue  fishes 
sport  in  the  Jordan  and  Nile.  The  map  accurately  shows 
the  location  of  mountains  and  hills,  of  wilderness  and  for- 
ests, of  cold  and  hot  springs,  of  pools  and  lakes,  of  palm 
trees  and  wells,  and  represents  these  in  their  natural  colors. 
Each  city  may  be  recognized  by  its  distinguishing  features. 
The  obelisks  of  Ashkelon  ;  the  great  street  of  Gaza  which 
leads  to  a  basilica;  the  oval  place  in  Lydda :  all  these  are 
anything  but  accidental  things.  To  be  recognized  at  the 
first  glance,  Kerak  is  seen  enthroned  on  a  high  rock.  How 
carefully  the  artist  did  his  work,  even  to  the  minutest  detail, 
is  illustrated  by  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre  in  Jerusalem. 
From  its  representation  we  can  definitely  conclude  that  Con- 
stantine  did  not  build  three  different  sanctuaries  to  mark 
the  sacred  places  of  the  Lord's  death,  and  resurrection, 
and  the  finding  of  the  cross,  but  only  one  large  church; 
that  the  three  entrance  doors  and  also  the  atrium  were  sit- 
uated on  the  east  side,  etc. 

The  map  was  probably  made  between  350  and  450  a.  d. 
Next  to  the  "  Peutingerian  Tables  "  this  is  the  oldest  map 
of  Palestine.  The  importance  of  this  new  discovery  can- 
not be  too  highly  estimated.  By  reason  of  its  great  mass 
of  details,  its  exact  representation  of  the  form,  size  and  plan 
of  towns  and  the  style  and  outline  of  buildings,  its  refer- 
ences to  several  hitherto  unknown  places,  its  indication  of 
the  then  current  traditions  regarding  certain  sacred  places 
and  their  location,  etc.,  the  map  proves  to  be  of  inestimable 
value  in  the  study  of  Hebrew  and  Christian  archaeology 
and  in  determining  the  geography  and  the  historical  condi- 
tions of  the  period  to  which  it  belongs.  An  accurate  edi- 
tion, especially  in  the  colors  of  the  original,  is  still  wanting. 


DURING   lorn  CENTURY:   PALESTINE 


cm 


at  Jerusalem  writes  a  letter  on  a  clay  tablet,  in  Babylonian 
cuneiform  characters   and  in   the  Assyrian  language,  to   his 
sovereign  in  Egypt,  already  speaks  volumes !      Who  would 
have  believed   this   to  be  possible,  even   twenty  years  ago  ? 
A    stronger    proof  for    the 
prevalence     of    Babylonian 
and  Assyrian  civilization  in 
the  whole  of  Western  Asia 
Minor  is   not    conceivable! 
What    inferences    may   and 
must    be   drawn    from   this 
regarding   the   existence   of 
many    other    evidences    of 
Babylonian  civilization  and 
conceptions  in  ancient   Ca- 
naan   and    therefore   also 
among  the  ancient  Israelites, 
cannot    yet    be    fully    con- 
ceived.    These   letters   also 
have    a    philological    value. 
Along  with   and  instead  of 
Assyrian   words    are   some- 
times found  Canaanite  words 
and  forms,  more  familiar  to 
the  writer.     These  Canaan- 
ite  glosses   demonstrate  —  what   was   previously  suspected 
but  could  not   be  proved  —  that  the  language  of  the  Ca- 
naanites  was  essentially  identical  with  Hebrew.      Our  geo- 
graphical knowledge  is   likewise   enriched   by  the   mention 
of  numerous  cities,  in  part  heretofore  unknown,  while  the 
proper  names  lead  to  important  inferences  in  regard  to  the 
religion  of  the  Canaanites. 

If  such  discoveries  were  made  in  Egypt,  may  we  not  hope 
that  the  soil  of  Palestine  still  conceals  treasures  just  as  pre- 
cious ?     The  above-mentioned  excavations  in  Tell  el-Hesy 


Letter  of  Abdi-Kheba  of  Jerusalem,  1400  1 


622  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

have  also  brought  to  hght  an  epistolary  tablet  which  in  form 
and  contents  belongs  to  this  correspondence.  It  can  there- 
fore confidently  be  affirmed  that  we  stand  not  at  the  end 
but  only  at  the  beginning  of  discoveries  on  the  soil  of 
Palestine. 

With  lively  satisfaction  the  friends  of  the  Holy  Land 
must  therefore  have  heard  of  the  recent  inauguration  of  two 
new  and  extensive  movements  in  the  interest  of  Palestinian 
research.  The  American  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  a 
number  of  other  scientific  organizations  of  North  America 
(universities,  colleges,  theological  seminaries)  have  provided 
the  means  for  establishing  a  "  School  "  at  Jerusalem,  which 
during  the  first  year  (1900-01)  was  under  the  direction  of 
Professor  Torrey,  of  Yale  University.  A  somewhat  older 
project,  but  likewise  not  yet  fully  carried  out,  is  that  of  the 
United  Evangelical  Churches  of  Germany  to  found  an  In- 
stitute of  Archaeology  in  Jerusalem.  Abundant  means  have 
been  provided  for  this,  and  it  is  to  begin  its  operations  in 
the  autumn  of  1901. 

These  institutions  will  supply  a  long-felt  need.  Their 
primary  purpose  is  to  introduce  young  scholars  into  differ- 
ent branches  of  investigation,  and  to  encourage  them  to 
undertake  researches  of  their  own.  At  the  same  time  they 
will  serve  as  a  local  centre  for  all  the  operations.  Well  pro- 
vided with  libraries  and  collections,  they  will  in  the  future 
place  the  necessary  scientific  apparatus  at  the  disposal  of 
every  scholar.  Finally,  so  far  as  their  means  will  allow,  they 
will  themselves  engage  in  making  researches,  arrange  for 
excavations,  study  the  countrv  and  its  characteristics,  the 
people  and  their  customs,  etc.  The  favorable  attitude  which 
the  Sultan  of  Turkey  and  the  Ottoman  government  have  in 
the  last  years  generallv  exhibited  towards  such  endeavors, 
affords  good  reason  to  believe  that  by  these  combined  efforts 
Oriental  study  will  be  greatly  promoted,  and  diligent  search 
be  rewarded  by  corresponding  discoveries. 


EXCAVATIONS    IN    EGYPT 


Jean  Francois  Champollion 


EXCAVATIONS    IN    EGYPT 


BY   PROF.    GEORGE  STEINDORFF,    PH.    D. 

During   the    nineteenth  century,   Egypt   has    gradually 
gained  a  prominent  place  in   the   science  of  archaeology,  so 

that  it  can  justly 
lay  claim  to  be  con- 
sidered as  the  gen- 
eral storehouse  for 
every  science. 

The  valley  of  the 
Nile  gives  up  to  the 
spade  of  the  ex- 
plorer its  almost  in- 
exhaustible supply 
of  monumental 
treasures,  —  trea- 
sures which,  thanks 
to  the  dryness  of 
the  climate,  are  in 
a  most  remarkably 
fine  state  of  preservation.  Not  a  single  year  passes  by 
but  that  we  are  surprised  by  some  new  discovery.  The 
monuments  and  texts  which  are  brought  to  light  are  natu- 
rally of  the  utmost  importance  for  the  studv  of  the  history 
and  civilization  of  Egypt.  By  means  of  them  we  are  ena- 
bled to  follow  the  past  life  of  the  country  almost  without 
interruption  into  the  fourth  millennium  before  the  Christian 
era.  From  that  period  forward,  we  are  in  a  position  to 
trace  the  development  of  the  Egyptian  language  and  litera- 
ture, so  that  we  have  gained  an  insight  into  the  civilization 
46 


Great  Pyramid  of  Cheops  at  Gize 


626  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

and  art,  religion  and  science,  and  even  the  administration 
of  the  country.  There  is  hardly  a  branch  of  daily  life  in 
which  we  are  not  instructed  by  the  monuments. 

But  not  only  has  the  science  of  Egyptology  gained  by 
the  discoveries  made  in  Egypt,  but  nearly  every  department 
of  learning  has  reaped  some  material  advantage.  In  order 
to  give  only  one  or  two  of  the  best  known  examples,  the 
field  of  classical  archaeology  may  be  cited  as  having  gained 
considerably  by  these  discoveries,  inasmuch  as  we  now  can 
fix  the  date  of  the  earliest  Greek,  the  so-called  Mycenean 
civilization,  by  means  of  the  vases  found  in  Naukratis  and 
other  Greek  colonies.  We  have  in  this  way  been  able  to 
add  to  our  knowledge  of  a  branch  of  this  most  important 
art.  The  numerous  Greek  portraits  which  have  been  dis- 
covered in  the  later  Egyptian  tombs  have  greatly  increased 
our  knowledge  in  the  large  sphere  of  pictorial  art,  about 
which  up  to  the  present  we  have  known  very  little. 

None  the  less  important  have  been  the  additions  to  clas- 
sical philology  which  we  have  derived  from  Egypt.  The 
great  papyrus  finds  of  the  last  decade  have  furnished  us 
with  literarv  works  previously  known  only  by  name  or  at 
the  best  in  fragments.  Among  these  may  be  prominently 
mentioned,  Aristotle's  "  Constitution  of  Athens,"  the 
Poems  of  Bachylides,  the  "  Mimiambi  "  of  Herondas  and 
others.  Many  manuscripts  of  the  known  works  of  classic 
literature  have  come  to  light  in  Egypt,  the  importance  of 
which  cannot  be  overrated,  since  by  their  copious  vocabulary 
thev  have  tended  either  to  verify  previous  readings  or  to 
improve  those  already  in  use. 

In  the  same  way  as  the  classical  so  has  also  the  early 
Christian  literature  received  extremely  valuable  additions, 
which  for  the  knowledge  of  the  earliest  historv  of 'Christian- 
ity and  the  writers  of  the  first  centuries  are  of  the  greatest 
importance.  We  would  only  mention  here  the  numerous 
gnostic  works  in  Coptic,  the  fragments  of  the  Logia  ' lesou 


DURING   WTH   CENTURY:   EGYPT 


627 


(Sayings  of  our  Lord),  the  Coptic  Apocalypse  of  Elias  and 
Saphonias,  and  the  Acts  of  St.  Paul,  which  have  been 
brought  to  light  from  the  libraries  attached  to  the  monas- 
teries, from  the  ancient  tombs,  and  even  from  among  rubbish 
heaps.      Besides  these  branches,  cuneiform  research,  ancient 


'^fS-^ 


^  4* 


::.'•_•'-?* 


Papyrus  containing  Portion  of  Aristotle's  Constitution  of  Athens 


Oriental   history,  Grasco-Roman  history,  jurisprudence,  and 
even  medicine  are  indebted  to  Egypt  for  new  material. 

Above  all,  the  history  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
history  of  the  people  of  Israel  have  had  fresh  light  thrown 
upon  them  by  means  of  the  Egyptian  monuments.  It  is 
true  that  up  to  the  present  we  have  no  monuments  which 
give  direct  evidence  of  the  sojourn  of  the  Hebrews  in 
Egypt.  For  the  lack  of  such  monuments,  however,  we  are 
amply  compensated   by  the    records  discovered  in   Egypt, 


628  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

more  than  in  Babylonia  or  Assyria,  which  enrich  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  most  ancient  history  and  civilization  of  Syria 
and  Palestine  preceding  the  entrance  of  the  Hebrews  into 
the  promised  land. 

Most  of  these  important  discoveries  which  have  been 
made  on  Egyptian  ground,  apart  from  those  which  have 
been  thrown  in  our  way  by  chance,  are  due  to  the  systematic 
archaeological  examinations  carried  on  by  the  leading  civil- 
ized nations  since  the  close  of  the  previous  century. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  EXCAVATIONS 

.  To  the  military  expedition  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  to 
Egypt,  conducted  in  the  summer  of  1798,  belongs  the 
honor  of  having  first  turned  the  attention  of  the  West  to- 
wards the  Egyptian  monuments  and  of  having  brought 
them  within  the  reach  of  science.  The  expedition  was  ac- 
companied bv  devotees  of  every  science  as  well  as  artists, 
who  amidst  the  clamor  of  war  studied  the  hoary  remains  of 
antiquitv  and  the  modern  conditions  of  the  conquered  coun- 
try. As  proof  of  the  great  diligence  which  was  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  subject  by  the  French  Academy  we  have  only 
to  mention  the  masterly  work  entitled  "  Description  of 
Egypt,"  ^  which  appeared  from  1809-18 13  in  twelve  vol- 
umes of  plates  and  twenty-four  of  text.  It  was  through 
this  magnificent  publication  that  Europe  first  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  treasure  of  mighty  monuments  preserved 
in  Egypt  from  a  remote  past,  and  we  were  astonished  at  the 
wonderful  remains  of  a  vanished  civilization  and  art  which 
was  far  superior  to  that  of  classic  antiquity. 

Among    the    antiquities    thus    collected    by   the    French 

^  The  French  title  of  this  work  is  :  Dcscriptio?!  de  P  Egypt e  ou  Recueil  des 
observations  et  des  recherches  qui  orit  ete  faites  en  Egypt e  pendant  I'' expedi- 
tion de  P arm'ee  fran^aise. 


The  Rosetta  Stone 


DURING  lOrn   CENTURY:   EGYPT  629 

expedition,  which,  according  to  an  arrangement  made 
between  the  French  and  EngHsh  commanders,  had  passed 
into  British  possession  and  are  now  deposited  in  the  British 
Museum  in  London,  was  a  large  slab  of  black  granite 
covered  with  inscriptions.  It  was  discovered  by  a  French 
artillery  officer  in  August,  1799,  at  Fort  St.  Julien  near 
Rosetta,  a  few  miles  to  the  east  of  Alexandria,  while  excava- 
ting for  fortifications.  At  once  it  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  scholars  attached  to  the  expedition.  No  less  than  three 
different  inscriptions  were  inscribed  on  this  "  Rosetta 
Stone:"  one  in  the  long  known  but  undeciphered  hiero- 
glyphic or  picture  writing,  the  other  in  a  shorter  or  cursive 
script,  which  was  also  unintelligible,  and  a  third  in  Greek. 
From  the  last  mentioned  it  was  noticed  that  we  had  to  do 
with  a  decree  in  honor  of  Ptolemy  V.  Epiphanes  (205-181 
B.  c).  In  order  that  this  decree  might  be  intelligible  to  all 
inhabitants  of  the  country,  Egyptians  as  well  as  Greeks,  it 
had  to  be  In  sacred  letters.  In  "  common  "  script  and  In  the 
Greek  alphabet.  Thus  it  was  evident  that  the  different 
inscriptions  all  dealt  with  the  same  subject,  and  that  the 
contents  of  the  Greek  text  was  the  same  as  the  other  two. 
Here,  then,  was  furnished  the  key  to  the  decipherment  of 
the  Egyptian  writing. 

As  early  as  the  year  1802,  the  attempt  was  made  by  the 
eminent  French  Orientalist,  Sllvestre  de  Sacy,  and  the  Swed- 
ish scholar,  Akerblad,  to  decipher  the  cursive  text  of  the 
Rosetta  stone,  and  they  were  in  so  far  successful  as  to  fix 
the  values  of  some  of  the  characters.  The  real  honor  of 
having  solved  the  mystery  of  the  hieroglyphics  and  having 
found  the  key  to  the  understanding  of  the  Egyptian  writ- 
ing and  language  belongs  to  the  Frenchman  Fran9oIs 
Champolllon,  who  in  a  treatise  published  in  1822  ^  fixed  a 

^  Lettre  a  M.  Devrier  relative  a  P  alphabet  des  hieroglyphes  phofietiques 
employe  par  les  Egyptiens  pour  iriscrire  sur  les  monuments  les  litres,  les  noms 
et  les  surnoms  des  souverains  grecs  et  romains. 


630  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

portion  of  the  Egyptian  alphabet  with  the  help  of  the  Ro- 
setta  stone.  With  enormous  perseverance  and  wonderful 
acumen  he  pursued  his  discoveries,  and  at  last  brought  it  so 
far  in  the  domain  of  hieroglyphic  study  that  at  the  time  of 
his  early  death  in  1832  he  was  able  to  leave  behind  him 
in  manuscript  a  complete  Egyptian  grammar  and  vocabu- 
lary. 

Through  this  discovery  of  Champollion,  the  interest  in 
ancient  Egypt  in  all  learned  circles  grew  considerably.  In 
order,  therefore,  to  gain  a  closer  acquaintance  with  the  mon- 
uments, it  was  necessary  to  bring  together  considerable  and 
trustworthy  material  in  the  shape  of  sculptures  and  in- 
scriptions, much  more,  in  fact,  than  was  brought  by  the 
members  of  the  French  expedition  of  1798,  who  were  igno- 
rant of  the  hieroglyphic  script. 

In  1828  an  expedition  was  sent  out  by  the  Tuscan  gov- 
ernment, provided  with  a  number  of  scholars,  and  supported 
by  Charles  X.  of  France.  At  the  head  were  Champollion 
and  the  Italian  Ippolito  Rosellini,  professor  in  Pisa.  The 
most  important  ruins  were  examined,  and  the  pictures  and 
inscriptions  in  the  tombs  and  temples  were  copied.  Also 
the  ruins  of  the  temples  of  Nubia,  which  shortly  before  had 
been  explored  by  the  German  architect  Gau,  were  more 
thoroughly  examined.  Owing  to  the  outbreak  of  the  revo- 
lution, Champollion  was  unfortunately  compelled  to  return 
to  France,  where  very  soon  afterward  he  died  from  exhaus- 
tion consequent  upon  the  wear  and  tear  of  travel,  which 
affected  his  weak  constitution.  The  task  of  continuing  the 
work  fell  to  the  lot  of  Rosellini.  In  spite  of  this  misfor- 
tune the  results  of  the  Franco-Tuscan  expedition  were  very 
great,  being  published  in  two  large  works,  which  have  re- 
mained to  this  day  the  most  important  storehouse  of  Egyp- 
tological science.  This  Italian  publication,  the  work  of 
Rosellini,  arranges  the  collected  monuments  according  to 
subjects.     One  volume  shows  us  the  historical  side,  another 


DURING  191'"   CENTURY:   EGYPT  631 

gives  us  insight  into  the  private  Hfe  of  the  people,  while 
others  present  to  us  monuments  referring  to  religious  his- 
tory. Eight  volumes  of  text  accompany  the  plates,  giving 
the  necessary  descriptions.  The  French  publication  was 
only  brought  out  after  the  death  of  Champollion,  and  was 
arranged  in  geographical  order,  according  to  the  plan 
adopted  in  the  work  of  the  Napoleonic  expedition.  Far 
more  valuable  than  these  volumes  of  plates  are  the  notes 
which  Champollion  collected  and  put  together  during  his 
travels.  He  not  only  described  the  monuments  which  had 
been  seen,  but  also  furnished  a  quantity  of  valuable  archae- 
ological material.  It  is  astonishing  to  see  the  amount  of 
Egyptological  knowledge  Champollion  was  enabled  to  get 
together  during  the  short  time  that  he  worked,  and  which 
he  laid  before  us  in  this  publication, — the  ripest  work  of 
his  genius. 

During  the  decade  following  Champollion's  death  Europe 
was  busy  deciphering  the  hieroglyphs,  and  great  pains  were 
taken  to  lift  the  veil  covering  Egypt's  antiquity.  In  Egvpt 
itself  the  explorations  were  continued  not  by  expeditions, 
but  by  individuals.  The  most  important  of  these  was  car- 
ried on  in  the  cemetery  of  Memphis  in  1 837  by  two  English- 
men, the  engineer  F.  E.  Perring  and  Colonel  Howard  Vyse. 
A  large  number  of  pyramids,  foremost  those  of  Gize,  were 
examined,  accurate  measurements  taken,  and  their  architec- 
ture studied.  In  this  way  a  foundation  was  laid  for  the 
study  of  an  important  branch  of  the  Egyptian  history  of 
architecture. 

In  the  mean  time  the  interest  of  Germany  was  aroused  in 
the  decipherment  of  the  hieroglyphs,  and  especially  by  such 
men  as  Alexander  von  Humboldt  and  Karl  Josias  von 
Bunsen.  These  were  thev  who  moved  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
IV.,  King  of  Prussia,  who  ascended  the  throne  in  1840,  to 
follow  the  example  set  by  the  French  and  Italians,  and 
also  to  send  an  expedition  to   Egypt.      In  accordance  with 


632  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

their  wish,  the  young  scholar  Karl  Richard  Lepsius  was  in- 
trusted with  the  mission,  and  a  staff  of  eminent  co-workers 
accompanied  him,  among  others  the  architect  Erbkam  and 
the  draughtsmen  Karl  and  Ernst  Weidenbach.  The  ex- 
pedition under  Champollion  in  the  main  had  been  a  voyage 
of  discovery,  concerned  only  with  those  monuments  which 
chance  happened  to  throw  in  his  way.  Lepsius,  on  the 
other  hand,  armed  with  greater  knowledge  of  the  localities 
to  be  examined,  could  attempt  to  supply  the  gaps  which  his 
predecessor  had  left. 

Above  all  things,  he  had  set  about  to  bring  historical 
order  into  the  arrangement  of  the  monuments,  to  devote  a 
certain  amount  of  time  to  each  monument,  and  later  to  place 
Egyptian  history,  art,  and  civilization  on  a  permanent  basis. 
That  this  methodical  system  was  followed  by  the  best  re- 
sults is  well  known  to-day. 

The  Prussian  expedition  began  its  explorations  on  the 
pyramid  field  of  Memphis,  the  importance  of  which  did  not 
seem  to  have  struck  Champollion  and  consequentlv  had  been 
left  by  him  almost  untouched.  Lepsius,  and  especially  Erb- 
kam, undertook  the  investigation  of  the  pyramids  which  had 
been  begun  by  Perring  and  Vyse,  and  attempted  to  find  the 
history  of  the  building  of  these  greatest  of  royal  tombs  of 
the  world.  They  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Egyptian 
kings  did  not  raise  up  these  structures  to  their  enormous 
height  at  one  time.  Every  king  began  building  his  pyramid 
as  soon  as  he  ascended  the  throne,  beginning  on  very  small 
lines  in  order  to  be  sure  of  his  tomb  even  if  he  occupied  the 
throne  only  for  a  short  time.  As  his  reign  increased  in 
years,  so  the  pyramid  increased  in  size  by  means  of  laying 
on  outside  casings.  These  monuments  of  the  dead  were 
therefore  always  commensurate  with  the  lives  of  their  build- 
ers. For  if  a  king  died  while  his  pyramid  was  in  the  course 
of  construction,  it  was  finished  with  an  outside  mantle  or 
casing,  the  pyramid  thus  corresponding  in  size  to  the  length 


DURING   19TH  CENTURY:   EGYPT  633 

of  the  king's  life.  This  theory,  which  was  propounded  by 
Lepsius,  has  often  been  attacked  ;  but  on  closer  examination 
it  turns  out  to  be  in  the  main  correct,  needing  modification 
only  in  one  or  two  important  points. 

Along  with  the  pyramids  a  large  number  of  private  tombs 
were  examined  for  the  first  time.  These  tombs  were  sit- 
uated in  the  necropolis  of  Memphis,  and  yielded  an  un- 
paralleled harvest.  Over  one  hundred  and  thirty  tombs 
were  discovered,  nearly  all  of  which  belonged  to  the  same 
period  as  the  pyramids,  and  furnished  us  with  enormous 
material  for  the  study  of  the  history,  civilization,  and  art  of 
the  period,  which,  following  the  example  of  Lepsius,  has 
been  called  the  period  of  "  the  Old  Empire."  Erbkam 
photographed  the  graves,  the  draughtsmen  copied  texts  and 
sculptures  from  the  walls,  and  numerous  objects  were  col- 
lected during  the  excavations  for  the  Berlin  Museum.  Then 
the  Fayum  was  visited,  and  inquiries  were  instituted  con- 
cerning the  position  of  Lake  Moeris  and  the  Labyrinth, 
which  were  connected  with  the  countrv.  In  Upper  Egypt 
they  not  only  visited  the  well  known  ruins,  but  discovered 
a  large  number  of  others,  until  then  unknown.  Special 
attention  was  paid  to  the  tombs  dating  from  about  the  end 
of  the  Old  Empire  and  the  Middle  Empire,  which  yielded 
valuable  material  for  the  study  of  the  earlier  periods  of 
Egyptian  history.  The  curious  ruined  sites  of  El-*Amarna, 
with  its  rock-tombs  dating  from  the  time  of  Amenophis  IV., 
were  also  visited. 

Besides  the  exploration  of  ancient  Egyptian  sites,  the  ex- 
pedition had  from  the  first  set  itself  another  not  less  impor- 
tant task,  namely,  that  of  examining  the  ancient  Egyptian 
and  Ethiopian  monuments  which  were  to  be  found  on  the 
Upper  Nile,  and  which  had  only  been  superficially  examined 
by  ChampoUion,  Rosellini,  and  previously  by  Gau,  as  far  as 
the  second  cataract.  Through  Lepsius  the  whole  Ethiopian 
civilization  was  opened  up  to  us,  which  showed  that  it  was 


634  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

closely  connected  with  that  of  Egypt,  remains  of  which  were 
discovered  in  the  two  principal  towns  of  the  Ethiopian  king- 
dom, at  Napata  on  the  Gebel  Berkel,  and  in  Meroi,  the 
present  Begerauie. 

The  Prussian  expedition  pressed  forward  deep  into  the 
Soudan,  past  Khartum  on  the  Blue  Nile,  with  very  great 
success.  On  the  return  journey  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai  was 
visited,  from  Cairo  ;  and  the  copper  mines,  which  according 
to  the  inscriptions  and  representations  cut  in  the  rocks  at 
Wadi  Magara  were  worked  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the 
Old  Empire,  were  examined  for  the  first  time.  At  the  same 
time  the  problem  of  the  probable  route  of  the  Exodus,  which 
at  that  time  caused  much  discussion,  was  seriously  taken  up. 
Lepsius  advanced  the  opinion  that  the  mountain  called  by 
the  monks  Gebel  Musa  was  not  the  Sinai  of  the  Bible,  but 
that  the  mountain  of  God,  Horeb  or  Sinai,  corresponded 
more  probably  with  the  one  situated  a  few  days'  journey  to 
the  north  of  Gebel  M{isa,  which  is  called  Serbal. 

The  "  Monuments  from  Egypt  and  Ethiopia "  which 
were  discovered  by  the  Prussian  expedition  were  published 
by  Lepsius  in  twelve  volumes.  They  were  not  arranged 
according  to  geographical  order,  nor  according  to  the  sub- 
jects they  contained,  but  they  were  put  together  in  histor- 
ical order.  This  historical  arrangement  was  the  principal 
outcome  of  the  undertaking,  securing  for  Lepsius  and 
Erbkam  a  permanent  place  of  honor  in  the  history  of  their 
science. 

A  new  period  of  Egyptian  excavation  opened  when  in  the 
year  1850  the  French  savant  Augustus  Mariette  went  to 
Egypt.  His  name  stands  connected  with  the  epoch-making 
discoveries  on  Egyptian  soil  from  1850  to  1880.  The  great- 
est and  most  important,  which  placed  Mariette  foremost  in 
the  science  of  Egyptology,  was  his  discovery  of  the  Serapeum, 
the  burying-place  of  the  sacred  Apis  bulls  in  Memphis.  As 
far  back  as  the  time  of  the   Emperor  Augustus,  when  the 


DURING   19 Til  CENTURY:   EGYPT 


635 


Greek  geographer  Strabo  travelled  in  the  Nile  valley,  this 
ancient  sanctuary  was  covered  with  the  sands  of  the  desert, 
and  only  the  Sphinx,  together  with  part  of  the  road  leading 
up  to  it,  could  be  seen  in  the  sands.  Mariette  began  his 
excavations  by  the  avenue  of  the  sphinxes,  and  following  it 
was  led  to  the  entrance  of  the  Serapeum.  In  the  night  of 
the  thirteenth  of  November  he  forced  his  way  into  the  sub- 
terranean passages  and  was  amplv  rewarded  tor  his  trouble. 


Sphinx  Temple  near  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Cheops 


Sixty-four  Apis  tombs,  which  dated  from  the  Eighteenth 
Dynasty  down  to  the  latest  periods  in  the  time  of  Cleopatra, 
were  discovered,  together  with  funereal  figures,  amulets,  and 
ornaments.  Above  all,  thousands  of  memorial  stones,  which 
pious  pilgrims  had  erected,  were  recovered  from  a  long- 
forgotten  past,  and  were  sent  by  the  fortunate  discoverer  to 
enrich  the  collection  at  the  Louvre.  Great  was  the  value 
of  the  inscriptions  found  from  an  archaeological  standpoint, 


036  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

yet  still  greater  because  of  their  historical  interest,  for  nearly 
all  the  stones  and  coffins  were  dated  in  the  reigns  of  differ- 
ent kings,  and  thereby  supplied  most  important  material 
for  the  chronology  of  Egyptian  history. 

This  first  excavation  was  followed  by  a  second  at  the 
great  Sphinx  at  Gize,  which  led  to  the  discovery  of  a  large 
temple  built  of  blocks  of  granite  and  alabaster,  in  which 
Mariette  soon  recognized  the  sanctuary  of  the  God  Sokaris 
Osiris  of  Ro-setew,  so  often  mentioned  in  the  inscriptions. 

In  the  year  1857  Mariette  was  appointed  director  of  the 
newly  established  museum  in  Cairo,  the  collection  of  which 
was  temporarily  stored  in  the  port  of  Bulaq,  and  is  even  now 
awaiting  the  completion  of  a  new  building  in  the  castle  of 
the  viceroy  at  Gize.  At  that  time  Mariette  received  from 
his  patron  Said-Pasha  full  permission  to  excavate  in  any 
part  of  Egypt  in  order  to  gain  monuments  for  the  new 
museum.  The  result  was  that  in  the  following  years  Mari- 
ette used  his  spade  in  no  less  than  thirty-seven  places,  and 
although  he  was  not  always  so  richly  rewarded  for  his  trou- 
ble, nevertheless  fortune  seems  to  have  favored  him.  It 
must  be  said,  however,  that  in  these  researches  there  was 
not  always  the  necessary  care  bestowed  upon  the  objects 
discovered,  and  in  the  search  for  treasures  by  common  work- 
men and  unlearned  overseers  —  for  Mariette  could  not  be 
always  present — many  important  remains  of  antiquity  were 
destroyed.  Mariette  has  often,  and  not  without  cause,  been 
blamed  for  not  having  published  the  results  of  his  discover- 
ies, except  here  and  there  in  an  unfinished  manner  and  many 
of  them  not  at  all,  so  that,  for  instance,  to-day  after  a  lapse 
of  fifty  years  a  comprehensive  work  on  the  Serapeum  exca- 
vations is  still  badly  needed.  Concerning  such  matters, 
however,  we  will  not  judge  the  dead,  but  tender  him  our 
thanks  for  his  untiring  activity  in  all  branches  of  Egyptian 
archaeology. 

While  in  the  Delta  the  excavations  at  Sais,  Bubastis,  and 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   EGYPT 


637 


Other  places  remained  almost  without  results,  there  were 
unearthed  in  the  temple  of  ancient  Tanis,  besides  statues  of 
the  Middle  Empire,  those  curious  human-headed  sphinxes 
in  which  Mariette  thought  to  recognize  a  likeness  of  the 
Hyksos  kings,  but  which  on  the  basis  of  recent  discoveries 
more  probably  represent  kings  of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty.  In 
the  necropolis  of  Memphis,  near  Gize,  and  especially  at 
Saqqara,  Mariette  continued  the  work  which  Lepsius  had 
begun.  More  than  three  hundred  new  tombs,  or  as  they 
are  now  called  "mastabas,"  were 
discovered,  and  in  addition  to  the 
valuable  inscriptions  and  sculptures 
which  covered  the  walls  of  these 
stone  structures,  there  were  a  num- 
ber of  statues  brought  to  light. 
Among  the  latter  are  some  of  the 
best  works  of  the  Egyptian  artists, 
such  as  the  famous  seated  statue  of 
the  scribe  in  the  Louvre  and  the 
"Village  Chief"  {Shaikh  el-beled)  in 
the  Cairo  museum. 

Among  the  excavations  carried 
on  by  Mariette  in  Upper  Egypt 
those  conducted  on  the  site  of  the 
ancient  sacred  city  of  Abydos  must 
take  the  first  rank.  There  he  laid 
bare  the  temple  of  Seti  I.,^  of  the 
Nineteenth  Dynasty,  with  its  beau- 
tifully executed  wall  sculptures, 
which  scarcely  have  their  equals,  and  also  the  famous  and 
most  valuable  "  List  of  the  Kings  "  of  Abydos,  sculptured 
in  relief,  representing  how  Seti  L  with  his  son  Rameses  IL 
offered  incense  to  seventy-six  of  his  ancestors  seated  on 
their  royal  thrones,  accompanied  by  their  names  and  titles. 

^  See  the  illustration  on  page  679.  — The  Editor. 


Statue  of  the  so-called  Village  Chief 


6B8  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Further  may  be  mentioned  a  rather  mutilated  temple  of 
Rameses  II.,  a  smaller  chapel  founded  by  the  same  ruler  in 
the  town,  as  well  as  the  large  temple  of  the  god  Osiris. 
Enormous  finds  were  made  in  the  different  burying-places 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  town,  dating  from  the  earliest  to 
the  latest  times.  Over  fifteen  thousand  monuments  are 
reported  to  have  been  discovered,  and  the  catalogue  alone 
published  by  Mariette  shows  over  eight  hundred  tomb- 
stones, most  of  which  belong  to  the  Middle  Empire  and 
bear  important  inscriptions.  At  Dendera,  the  Greek  Ten- 
tyra,  the  great  sanctuary  of  the  goddess  of  love,  Hathor, 
built  under  the  last  Ptolemies,  was  in  the  main  cleared  of 
rubbish,  and  numerous  other  temples  and  chapels  in  the 
neighborhood  were  laid  open.  The  numerous  inscriptions 
and  sculptures  found  covering  the  temple  were  copied  and 
afterwards  published  in  large  volumes. 

On  the  ground  of  ancient  Thebes  there  was  hardly  a 
known  monument  which  was  not  examined.  On  the  east 
bank  of  the  Nile,  in  the  royal  temple  of  Karnak,  extensive 
excavations  were  undertaken,  which  were  productive  of 
numerous  finds  of  inscriptions  and  other  monuments.  The 
discovery  of  the  oldest  part  of  the  temple,  which  dates  from 
the  Middle  Empire,  being  also  a  success,  Mariette  was  in  a 
position  to  fix  the  architectural  history  of  these  temple  build- 
ings from  their  foundation  in  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies  down 
to  the  latest  periods.  On  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile,  at 
Thebes,  there  were  laid  open  in  the  south  the  temple  build- 
ings of  Medinet  Habu,  and  partly  cleared  of  rubbish.  In 
the  north,  near  Drah  Abu'l-Nagga,  the  tombs  belonging 
to  the  Middle  Empire  were  examined,  and  the  matchless 
terrace  temple  of  Der  el-Bahri  was  partly  uncovered.  In 
connection  with  the  latter,  on  the  middle  terrace  the  inter- 
esting relief  sculptures  representing  an  expedition  in  ships 
to  the  incense  countrv  of  Punt  were  discovered. 

In  Edfu,  the  ancient  ApoUonopolis  Magna,  Mariette  had 


47 


DURING  irrni   CENTURY:   EGYPT  639 

one  of  his  greatest  successes.  Here  the  temple  of  the  Sun- 
god  Horus,  constructed  during  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies, 
was  found  to  be  completely  covered  with  rubbish,  and  on 
the  roof  of  the  sanctuary  a  whole  Arab  village  had  settled 
itself.  Marietta's  first  work  there  was  to  have  the  modern 
houses  cleared  away  and  the  village  removed  into  the  plain. 
Then  the  courtyard  and  the  chambers  of  the  temple  were 
cleaned,  and  little  by  little  there  arose  the  magnificent  sanc- 
tuary with  its  columns,  reliefs,  and  inscriptions  almost  in- 
tact.     It  is  now  one  of  the  finest  temples  in  the  Nile  valley. 

As  long  as  Mariette  lived,  he  guarded  almost  jealously 
his  privilege  to  excavate.  It  is  true  that  he  permitted 
travelling  scholars  to  study  the  monuments  which  had 
been  discovered  by  him  or  even  any  of  those  which  had  been 
previously  brought  to  light,  but  to  no  one  was  given  the 
permission  to  excavate  on  his  own  account,  not  even  to 
his  greatest  friend,  the  German  scholar  Heinrich  Brugsch. 
Conditions  were  not  changed  until  after  the  death  of  Mari- 
ette. Nevertheless  the  principal  management  of  the  Egyp- 
tian antiquities  and  the  state  excavations  remained  in  the 
hands  of  the  French,  and  Mariette's  successors,  G.  Maspero, 
E.  Grebaut,  J.  de  Morgan,  and  Victor  Loret,  continued  in 
this  capacity  the  work  of  their  genial  predecessor.  But 
besides  these,  other  nations  and  other  French  savants  were 
allowed  to  take  part  in  the  excavations,  and  in  this  way  early 
in  the  eighties  a  thorough  examination  of  the  different  ruined 
sites  was  set  on  foot,  which  has  borne  rich  fruits  for  science 
and  has  furthermore  developed  the  methods  of  excavation 
in  this  scientific  contest,  which  had  been  largely  neglected  by 
Mariette,  who  was  mostly  concerned  in  obtaining  fine  speci- 
mens for  the  Museum. 

The  sites  chosen  for  the  official  excavations  of  the  Egyp- 
tian government  under  French  authority  were  especially 
the  wide  pyramid  fields  of  Memphis,  where  also  Mariette 
had  worked,  and  the  great  temples  of  the  old  capital  Thebes, 


640 


EXPLORATIONS  IJV  BIBLE  LANDS 


where  the  ancient  sanctuaries  of  Luxor  and  Medinet  Habu 
were  cleared  of  their  rubbish,  and  the  beautiful  Ptolemaic 
temple  of  Kom  Ombo  (Ombos),  which  has  been,  so  to  speak, 
conjured  up  from  the  ground  in  a  fine  state  ot  preservation. 
To  these  must  be  added  a  large  number  of  minor,  but  yet 
important  excavations  on  other  sites  of  ancient  Egypt,  es- 
peciallv  those  bv  Loret  in  the  "  Valley  of  the  Kings,"  near 


Temple  of  Kom  Ombo 

Thebes,  which   led   to  the  discoverv  of  the   tombs   of  the 
kings  of  the  New  Empire. 

Side  by  side  with  the  authorities  above  mentioned,  there 
has  been  working  since  1883  with  the  permission  of  the 
Egyptian  government  a  societv  of  excavators  known  as  the 
"  Egypt  Exploration  Fund."  Fhis  is  a  private  undertak- 
ing supported  by  small  contributions  from  its  members 
scattered  in  different  countries,  who  study  the  Egyptian  lan- 
guage, or  at  least  are  interested  in  Egypt's  past  history.  This 
society  has  done  very  creditable  work  by  publishing  quickly 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:   EGYPT  641 

and  in  useful  form  the  results  of  its  discoveries.  The  men 
who  have  worked  under  the  orders  of  the  Kgypt  Explora- 
tion Fund  are  principally  E.  Gardner,  F.  L.  Griffith,  Ed. 
Naville,  and  W.  M.  Flinders  Petrie.  The  first  sites  taken 
in  hand  by  the  Exploration  Fund  were  the  much  neglected 
ruins  in  the  Delta.  The  most  important  finds  made  there 
were  the  Biblical  Pithom  and  the  famous  Greek  Naukratis. 
Since  1891  this  Fund  has  made  Upper  Egypt  the  scene  of 
its  operations,  and  has  had  the  temple  of  Der  el-Bahri,  one 
of  the  jewels  of  Egyptian  architecture,  cleared  of  its  rubbish. 
Also  Petrie,  after  giving  up  his  connection  with  the 
Egypt  Exploration  Fund,  exchanged  his  field  of  work  in 
the  Delta  for  that  of  the  Nile  valley,  and  supported  by 
two  private  persons,  Jesse  Haworth  and  Martyn  Kennard, 
began  excavations  on  his  own  account.  In  the  Fayum, 
the  position  of  the  Labyrinth  and.  Lake  Moeris  was  estab- 
lished ;  the  pyramids  of  Hawara  and  El-Lahun  were  ex- 
amined, and  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  former  an  extensive 
Roman  cemetery  was  discovered ;  and  finally  a  whole  town, 
dating  from  the  second  half  of  the  Middle  Empire,  was 
brought  to  light.  These  magnificent  archaeological  works 
Petrie  followed  up  by  exploring  the  pyramids  of  Mediam, 
and  the  famous  ruins  of  Tell  el-' Amarna,  which  have  come 
so  prominently  to  the  front  through  the  discovery  of  the 
clay  tablets  of  Amenophis  IV.  In  1894  the  temple  re- 
mains of  ancient  Coptos  were  dug  out.  The  excavations 
carried  on  in  1895  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile  near  Na- 
qada  and  Ballas  led  to  the  discovery  of  Ombos,  mentioned 
by  Juvenal,  and  many  remains  of  the  earliest  Egyptian  civ- 
ilization. After  working  once  more  on  his  own  responsi- 
bility near  Thebes  in  1896,  Petrie  again  entered  the  service 
of  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund,  where  he  had  earned  his 
first  laurels,  and  in  whose  interests  he  has  since  been  carry- 
ing on  excavations  in  the  necropolis  of  Deshashe  (1897), 
Dendera  (1898),  and  Hou  (1899). 


642  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

In  order  to  give  voung  Egyptologists  a  chance  to  exca- 
vate on  their  own  account,  a  new  excavation  society  was 
founded  by  Petrie  called  the  "  Egyptian  Research  Account," 
whose  members,  similar  to  those  of  the  Egypt  Exploration 
Fund,  contribute  yearly  towards  the  cost  of  the  excavations. 
Alreadv  in  1896,  under  the  supervision  of  Ouibell,  one 
of  the  best  of  Petrie's  pupils,  work  was  commenced  at 
the  Rameseum,  which  was  very  successful,  and  continued 
in  the  following  vears  at  El-Kab,  the  site  of  Eileithyaspo- 
lis,  and  at  the  ruins  of  ancient  Hierakonpolis  near  Kom  el- 
Ahmar. 

Other  scholars  became  rivals  of  these  masters  of  archae- 
ologv  and  the  excavation  societies.  Two  young  Swiss 
Egvptologists,  F.  G.  Gautier  and  G.  Jequier,  undertook  in 
the  winter  of  1894-95  the  exploration  of  the  group  of  pyr- 
amids of  Lisht,  south  of  Dahshur,  and  discovered  that  the 
pyramid  lying  to  the  north  was  the  tomb  of  Amenophis  L, 
and  that  to  the  south  was  the  monument  of  Usertesen  L, 
both  belonging  to  the  Twelfth  Dynasty.  In  the  last  named 
were  discovered  limestone  statues  of  the  king  more  than 
life  size,  which  are  masterpieces  of  the  plastic  arts  of  the 
Middle  Empire.  Since  1896  the  Frenchman  Amelineau 
has  continued  the  excavation  in  the  ruins  of  Abydos,  which 
Mariette  had  begun.  Although  totally  inexperienced  in 
the  art  of  excavating,  he  has  managed  to  lay  bare  a  number 
of  verv  old  roval  tombs  and  has  discovered  the  famous 
tomb  of  Osiris.  Further,  the  excavations  on  the  island  of 
Philae  remain  to  be  considered.  They  were  undertaken 
with  the  purpose  of  examining  the  buildings  and  monu- 
ments on  the  islands  on  the  south  frontier  of  Egypt  with  a 
view  to  ascertain  how  far  thev  would  suffer  by  the  construc- 
tion of  the  great  dam,  and  if  possible  to  guard  them  against 
injuries.  At  that  time  not  only  was  the  well-known  great 
temple  cleared  of  rubbish  bv  the  English  engineer  Captain 
Lyons  and  the  German  Egyptologist  Borchardt,  but  a  large 


DURING  lOrii  CENTURY:   EGYPT  643 

number  of  smaller  sanctuaries  and  chapels,  as  well  as  the 
remains  of  Christian  churches  were  brought  to  light. 

In  recent  times  Germany,  which  had  not  undertaken  any 
excavation  since  the  expedition  of  Lepsius,  has  come  again 
to  the  front.  By  order  of  the  Berlin  Museum,  the  Berlin 
Egyptologist  H.  Schafer  has  excavated  a  pyramidal  ruin 
near  Abusir,  and  found  in  it  a  sanctuary  dedicated  by  King 
N-user-Re  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty  to  the  Sun-god.  At  the 
same  time  Spiegelberg  of  Strassburg,  in  conjunction  with 
the  English  Egyptologist  Newberry,  has  been  working  with 
good  result  at  Drah  Abu'l-Nagga  on  the  west  bank  of 
the  river  near  Thebes,  and  has  discovered  besides  important 
tombs  and  temples  also  the  ruins  of  a  palace  of  Queen 
Hatshepsowet.  So  we  see  that  nearly  all  nations  have 
taken  part  in  recovering  the  remains  of  Egyptian  antiquity. 

When  I  now  in  the  following  make  an  attempt  to  give  a 
brief  account  of  the  results  which  these  excavations  have 
had  for  Egyptian  history  as  well  as  for  archaeology  in  gen- 
eral, I  must  say  at  the  outset  that  I  cannot  go  into  all  par- 
ticulars of  the  greater  discoveries.  I  will  therefore  restrict 
myself  to  those  excavations  which  either  have  tended  to 
solve  old  and  oft  discussed  problems  or  which  are  of  para- 
mount importance  in  certain  branches  of  Egyptian,  Biblical, 
or  classical  archaeology. 


THE    RESULTS    OF   THE    EXCAVATIONS 
I 

THE     DELTA 

Of  the  flourishing  cities,  temple  gardens,  and  extensive 
cemeteries  which  once  in  antiquity  existed  in  Lower  Egvpt, 
comparatively  few  remain,  fewer  than  in  the  Nile  vallev 
itself.       In    the    Delta,    the    dry,    almost    rainless    climate 


644  EXPLOBATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

and  the  sandy  desert  which  have  proved  so  beneficial  for 
the  preservation  of  antiquities  in  Upper  Egypt  are  missing. 
The  rain  and  moisture  have  had  a  destructive  effect,  and 
besides  these  the  salts  which  exist  in  the  ground  have 
played  havoc  with  the  work  of  human  hands.  Topogra- 
phical changes  have  also  been  partly  responsible  ;  for  the  ruins 
of  many  ancient  towns  which  stood  in  the  midst  of  fruit- 
bearing  countries  are  now  wholly  or  partly  covered  with 
water,  and  places  which  were  once  quite  dry  have  now  been 
turned  into  swamps.  Moreover,  that  which  had  escaped 
destruction  through  the  agency  of  nature  has  been  demol- 
ished by  human  hands.  Lower  Egypt  is  poor  in  stones, 
and  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  towns  and  temples  lent  them- 
selves to  the  inhabitants  for  excellent  stone  quarries,  from 
which  they  could  with  little  trouble  get  material  for  mill- 
stones or  buildings,  and  which  could  even  be  burnt  to  pro- 
duce lime.  The  result  has  been  that  for  centuries  these 
ruins  have  been  plundered  for  this  purpose,  and  from  the 
sanctuaries  of  Tanis  and  Bubastis  all  the  limestone  blocks 
have  been  carted  off,  onlv  the  heavy  useless  granite  and 
sandstone  being  allowed  to  remain.  Under  these  circum- 
stances we  cannot  wonder  that  most  of  the  large  towns  of 
ancient  times  like  Buto,  Sebennytus,  Sais,  etc.,  have  vanished 
from  the  face  of  the  earth,  while  others  exist  only  in  part. 

Tanis,  the  Biblical  Zoan,  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Delta, 
is  the  only  one  which  can  show  anvthing  like  the  remains 
of  a  city,  and  has  therefore  from  the  first  attracted  the  espe- 
cial attention  of  the  explorers.  As  far  back  as  i860,  Ma- 
riette  had  begun  excavations  at  this  site,  and  discovered  those 
curious  statues  and  sphinxes  in  granite  which  he  himself, 
and  afterwards  many  others,  attributed  to  the  Hyksos  kings, 
but  which  by  recent  discoveries  have  shown  themselves  to 
be  more  probably  kings  of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty  (Amen- 
emhat  III.).  Later,  in  1866,  Lepsius  examined  the  temple 
ruins  and  discovered  a  trilingual  inscription,  a  decree  of  the 


DURING  IDTii   CENTURY:   EGYPT 


645 


Egyptian  priests  in  honor  of  Ptolemy  III.,  Euergetes, 
which  is  not  only  of  great  historical  interest,  but  also  proves 
the  accuracy  of  the  decipherment  of  the  hieroglyphs.  As 
large  portions  of  the  ruin  remained  unexamined,  it  was  con- 
sidered wise  that  Petrie  should  in  1884  begin  excavations 
there,  under  the  auspices  of  the  P-gypt  Exploration  Fund. 
The  whole  temple  district  was  laid  bare,  and  many  valuable 


Ruins  ot  Tanis,  the  Biblical  Zoan 

pieces  discovered  were  described.  Only  bv  these  means 
could  an  idea  of  the  size  of  this  sanctuary  and  its  surround- 
ings be  obtained.  Its  records  reach  back  to  the  earliest 
times  of  Egyptian  history  ;  for  not  only  Pepi  of  the  Sixth 
Dynasty  but  also  the  great  Pharaohs  of  the  Twelfth  added 
their  works  to  it,  and  furnished  the  temple,  dedicated  to  the 
god  Set,  with  obelisks,  pillars,  statues,  and  sphinxes.  Like 
many  of  the  old  temples,  this  also  fell  into  decay  during 
the  troublous  times  of  the  Hyksos  rule.       Rameses   II., 


646  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

the  great  builder  among  the  Pharaohs,  restored  its  ancient 
splendor  by  using  the  still  remaining  materials  of  the 
older  structure.  He  created  a  building  of  the  first  order, 
having  a  length  of  one  thousand  feet  —  an  edifice  which 
could  stand  side  by  side  with  the  great  sanctuaries  of  the 
city  of  Thebes  in  Upper  Kgvpt. 

No  less  imposing  must  have  been  the  temples  of  the 
town  ot  Bast,  the  Greek  Bubastis,  the  ruins  of  which  lie 
near  the  town  of  Zaqaziq,  and  the  name  of  which  (Tell 
Basta)  reminds  us  of  the  ancient  citv.  The  ruins  have  suf- 
fered considerably  in  the  course  of  time,  and  the  city  must 
have  been  destroyed  by  an  earthquake.  Nevertheless,  the 
excavations  carried  on  by  Naville  in  1887-89,  by  order  of 
the  English  society,  have  been  productive  of  much  valuable 
material  for  the  study  of  the  history  and  surroundings  of 
the  sanctuary.  Especially  the  pyramid  builders  Cheops  and 
Chefren  were  active  there,  and  also  the  kings  of  the  Middle 
Empire  who  have  erected  halls.  In  later  times  Rameses 
II.  rebuilt  a  great  part  of  it,  until  at  last  it  received,  prior 
to  its  final  catastrophe,  its  present  form  under  the  kings 
of  the  Twenty-second  Dynasty  and  Nechterehbet  (Nek- 
tanebes  I.).  At  that  time  it  consisted  of  four  large  halls, 
which  together  had  a  length  of  six  hundred  English  feet, 
and  according  to  Herodotus  was  entered  through  a  pylon 
ornamented  with  reliefs,  which  had  a  height  of  ten  fathoms. 
Above  alljNaville's  excavations  have  brought  to  light  re- 
mains of  the  Middle  Empire,  especially  columns  of  differ- 
ent styles  (of  sistrum  or  palm  leaf),  which  illustrated  the 
fact  that  about  the  third  millennium  before  Christ  Egyptian 
architects  were  well  acquainted  with  those  principles  of 
art  which  show  us  a  development  that  until  Naville's  dis- 
coveries was  thought  to  be  known  only  in  later  times. 

Among  the  smaller  ruins  of  the  Eastern  Delta  situated  on 
or  near  the  great  caravan  road  to  Syria  and  Palestine,  two 
which  were  excavated  by  Petrie  for  the  Egypt  Exploration 


DURING  19TH   CENTURY:   EGYPT 


647 


— "^ 


Fund  deserve  to  be  mentioned.  The  one  which  is  now 
called  Tell  Nebeshe  comprises  what  was  called  by  the 
Egyptians  Erment^  the  capital  of  the  nineteenth  district 
{nomos)  of  Lower  Egypt,  and  is  possibly  Buto,  mentioned 
by  Herodotus  (2:75)  as  lying  on  the  Arabian  frontier. 
Far  more  important  than  the  two  little  sanctuaries,  one  of 
which  was  built  by  Rameses  II.,  the  other  by  King  Amasis, 
is  the  great  cemetery,  in  which  tombs  of  the  New  Empire 
and  of  the  Saitic  times  have  been  discovered.  Among  the 
latter  were  found  besides  pure  Egyptian  burials  also  some 
Greek  tombs, 
which  were 
full  of  Cypri- 
otic  vases  and 
weapons.  Pe- 
trie  has  as- 
sumed, and 
probably  quite 
rightly,  that 
they  belong  to 
the  Greek 
m  ercenaries, 
who  entered 
the  Egyptian 
service  in  large 

numbers  about  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  and  who 
were  stationed  by  Amasis  on  the  eastern  borders  of  his 
kingdom. 

Tell  Defne,  which  is  situated  to  the  east  of  the  Pelusic 
branch  of  the  Nile,  takes  us  back  to  about  the  same  period. 
Here  were  discovered  the  remains  of  a  fortress  surrounded 
by  a  large  strong  wall,  which  was  built  by  Psemtek  I.,  and 
remains  of  buildings  in  which  were  found  quantities  of  Greek 
potsherds  and  weapons.  Probably  we  have  here  to  do  with 
the  camp  which,  according  to   Herodotus,  was  occupied  by 


''"TV 


Sphinx  from  Pithom 


648 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


Ionian  soldiers  under  the  first  Psemtek,who  were  afterwards 
transferred  to  Memphis.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  hardly 
possible  that  this  Greek  town  can  be  the  Daphnae  mentioned 
in  other  places,  or  even  be  considered  as  identical  with  the 
Biblical    Tahpanhes,   to  which,   according  to  Jeremiah  and 

Ezekiel,  the  Jews 
went  after  the  tall  of 
Jerusalem,  in  order 
to  found  a  new 
home.  Although 
the  search  for  the 
town  mentioned  in 
the  Bible  has  been 
fruitless,  the  excava- 
tions of  recent  times 
have  thrown  much 
light  on  other  points 
of  Bible  study, 
namely,  on  the  posi- 
tion of  Pithom  and 
Goshen,  the  country 
which  Pharaoh  gave 
to  the  children  of 
Israel. 

To  the  east  of  the 
modern  town  of 
Zaqaziq,the  Bubastis 
above  referred  to,  there  extends  towards  the  Suez  canal  a 
narrow  vallev  watered  by  a  canal  which  branches  off  at  Cairo 
and  flows  towards  Suez.  This  vallev  is  known  as  the  Wadi 
Tumilat,  and  the  canal,  which  is  called  Isma'iliya  canal,  was 
constructed  in  the  years  1858-63,  in  order  to  supply  the 
workmen  engaged  in  the  building  operations  at  Suez  with 
drinking  water.  In  ancient  times  a  canal  ran  here  which 
connected   the  Nile  with  the   Red  Sea,  turning  the  valley 


Tell  el-Maskhiita,  the  Biblical  Fithom 


DURING  W"   CENTURY:  EGYPT 


649 


into  fertile  ground.  On  the  south  side  of  this  watercourse, 
about  twelve  English  miles  from  the  modern  Isma'iliya, 
is  situated  an  abandoned  settlement,  Tell  el-Maskhuta, 
"  Mound  of  the  Statue."  At  the  time  of  the  French  ex- 
pedition a  group  of  statues  was  discovered  here  which  re- 
presented Rameses  II.  between  the  gods  Atum  and  Re. 
Also  a  large  number  of  sandstone  and  granite  blocks  were 


Store  Chamber  of  Pithom 


brought  to  light,  which  were  covered  with  hieroglyphs  such 
as  usually  mark  the  sites  of  ancient  ruins  in  the  Delta. 
Since  many  of  these  blocks  bore  the  name  of  Rameses  II., 
it  was  at  first  supposed  that  the  Biblical  Rameses,  on  the 
building  of  which  the  Israelites  labored  according  to  Exodus 
(chapters  i  and  2),  was  represented  by  this  Tell  el-Mas- 
khuta, as  it  is  thought  to  have  existed  in  the  eastern  part  of 
the  Delta.  New  finds,  and  especially  Naville's  excavations, 
have  proved  this  opinion  to  be  erroneous.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  is   good   reason  for   believing    that    here    was 


650  KX I' LO RATIONS  IN   lilBLE  LANDS 

situated  the  Biblical  Pithom,  which  was  called  in  Egyptian 
Per-Atum,  "  House  of  the  god  Atum,"  and  which  also  bore 
the  profane  name  o{  Seku.  The  temple  was  surrounded  by 
a  wall,  inside  of  which  was  the  little  sanctuary  built  by 
Rameses  11.  to  the  god  of  the  city,  Atom.  Not  far  from 
the  temple,  granaries  were  discovered,  which  took  the  shape 
of  deep  rectangular  compartments  without  doors,  into  which 
the  grain  was  poured  from  the  top.  To  judge  from  the 
bricks  of  which  they  are  built,  they  belong  to  the  time  of 
Rameses  II.,  and  it  is  therefore  possible  that  they  may 
be  the  store  cities  built  by  the  Israelites  at  the  command 
of  Pharaoh.  Naville's  excavations  have  further  proved 
that  Tell  el-Maskhuta  contains  the  remains  of  the  ancient 
Ero  or  Heroonpolis,  at  which,  according  to  the  Greek 
translation  of  the  Scriptures,  the  meeting  took  place  between 
Joseph  and  his  father,  and  which  in  a  Coptic  translation  is 
regarded  as  identical  with  Pithom. 

As  the  real  seat  of  the  Hebrews  we  find  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament the  land  of  Goshen,  the  ge  Gesem  'Arabias  of  the 
Septuagint.  This  Gesem  (in  Egyptian  also  Gesem)  has  been 
rediscovered  by  Naville  in  the  ruins  called  to-day  Saft  el- 
Henne,  to  the  east  of  Zaqaziq.  It  was  the  capital  of  a 
particular  district  called  'Arabias  nonios^  and  was  known  by 
the  profane  name  of  Per-Sopt^  "  House  of  the  god  Sopt." 
The  Egyptian  name  of  the  god  has  survived  in  the  modern 
Arabic  name  of  the  god.  The  land  of  Goshen  must  there- 
fore be  looked  for  in  the  neighborhood  of  Saft  el-Henne. 
In  that  district  to  the  east  of  the  Bubastic  branch  of  the 
Nile,  perhaps  in  the  triangle  formed  by  the  cities  Zaqaziq, 
Belbes  and  Abu  Hammad,  the  Septuagint  has  placed  the 
traditional  sojourn  of  the  Israelites,  and  it  is  highly  probable 
that  the  old  (Jehovistic)  narrator  meant  by  the  "  Land  of 
Goshen  "  this  district  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Delta. 

Many  other  ruins  were  examined  in  this  eastern  part  of 
the  Delta,  but  most  of  them  are  not  of  very  great  interest. 


DURING   lorn  CENTURY:   EGYPT  651 

There  may,  however,  be  mentioned  Tell  el-Yehudiya,  situ- 
ated near  Shibin  el-Oanatir,  the  ancient  city  of  Onias,  where 
Rameses  II.  once  built  a  temple  with  glazed  bricks  in  the 
mosaic  style.  In  later  times  the  Jewish  high  priest  Onias, 
with  the  support  of  King  Ptolemv  Philometor  I.,  built  a 
temple  according  to  the  plan  of  the  temple  of  Solomon 
for  those  Jews  who  had  been  driven  out  of  Jerusalem. 
This  temple,  however,  has  disappeared  without  leaving  a 
trace  behind  ;  but  many  tombstones  bearing  Hebrew  in- 
scriptions have  been  discovered,  pointing  to  a  large  Jewish 
cemetery. 

We  now  leave  the  eastern  Delta  and  continue  our  travels 
towards  the  west,  tarrying  a  little  at  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant sites  excavated  by  Petrie  for  the  Egypt  Exploration 
Fund,  the  Greek  city  Naukratis.  It  was  by  chance  that 
Petrie's  attention  was  drawn  to  this  mound  of  remains  near 
Nebire,  situated  on  the  west  side  of  the  road  leading  from 
Tanta  to  Damanhur,  known  as  Kom  Ga'if  In  the  year 
1884  he  began  to  look  for  this  site.  He  found  a  long  low 
hill,  doubtless  containing  the  remains  of  a  town,  and  exhib- 
iting a  large  number  of  Greek  potsherds  of  archaic  character. 
Up  to  that  time  nothing  Greek  had  been  discovered  on 
Egyptian  soil  older  than  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great 
and  his  successors,  the  Ptolemies.  Here  for  the  first  time 
were  older  fragments,  showing  plainly  the  high  antiquity  of 
the  town.  In  the  year  1885,  when  Petrie  began  his  exca- 
vations here,  at  the  outset  he  came  upon  an  inscription 
which  proved  that  the  workmen  with  their  spades  were  dig- 
ging in  the  Greek  commercial  city  Naukratis,  founded  by 
Amasis. 

The  town  was  not  very  large,  extending  from  north  to 
south  a  distance  of  over  2600  feet  by  an  average  width  of 
about  1300  feet.  This  would  represent  the  extent  of  a  mid- 
dle-class Greek  town.  Of  the  many  Greek  temples  which 
according  to  the  Greek  writers  existed  in  Naukratis,  Petrie 
48 


652  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

discovered  the  sanctuary  of  the  Milesian  Apollo,  the  temple 
of  Hera  built  by  the  Samians,  and  the  great  Hellenium, 
that  famous  sanctuary  to  the  building  of  which  the  different 
Greek  colonies  from  the  Ionian  towns  Chios,  Teos,  Phocea, 
Clazomenas,  the  Dorians  from  Rhodes,  Knidos,  Halicarnas- 
sus,  and  the  Lycian  Phaselis,  and  the  T^iolians  from  Myti- 
lene  leagued  themselves  together.  Besides  these  sites,  which 
are  proved  by  tradition,  the  ruined  city  contained  also  the 
remains  of  a  temple  of  the  Dioscuri  and  a  sanctuary  of 
Aphrodite,  the  foundation  of  which  is  supposed  to  date 
back  to  600  B.  c.  Petrie  was  able  to  trace  the  close  net- 
work of  streets,  but  owing  to  the  great  destruction  the 
outlines  of  the  houses  could  no  longer  be  followed.  All 
sorts  of  domestic  appliances  were  brought  to  light,  especially 
tools  and  an  enormous  quantity  of  vases  and  fragments  of 
vases,  manv  of  which  had  dedicatory  inscriptions,  which  are 
all  the  more  important  as  they  furnish  us  with  samples  of 
the  earliest  Greek  script.  Also  a  great  scarab  manufactory 
was  found  in  the  town,  in  which  the  scarabaei  were  made 
of  a  white  and  blue  material  and  cast  in  earthenware  moulds, 
and  which  supplied  the  whole  of  Greece  and  the  colonies 
with  these  articles  as  amulets.  Thus  the  discovery  of  Nau- 
kratis  is  not  only  a  very  impMDrtant  find  for  ancient  history 
and  geography,  but  also  for  archaeology  and  palaeography. 

With  Naukratis  we  will  quit  the  Delta  and  turn  to  those 
ruins  which  are  situated  in  the  Nile  valley  proper,  and  which 
through  the  recent  excavations  have  gained  in  importance. 


II 


THE    PYRAMIDS   OF   MEMPHIS 

On  the  western  bank  of  the  Nile,  opposite  Cairo,  on  the 
edge  of  the  Libyan  high  plateau,  there  rise  the  gigantic 
pyramid   buildings.     From    the   north   above  Abu    Ruash 


DURING   I'JTii  CENTURY:   EGYPT 


653 


past  Gize  and  Saqqara  as  far  as  Medum,  which  is  situated 
at  the  entrance  to  the  Fayiam,  they  divide  themselves  into 
seven  large  groups.  That  the  three  larger  pyramids  had 
been  built  by  the  old  kings  Cheops,  Chefren  and  Myke- 
rinos  was  already  known  to  the  Greek  classic  writers.  They 
knew  also  that  they  were  to  serve  no  other  purpose  than 
to  be  burying-places  of  the  kings.  This  valuable  know- 
ledge had  been  lost  for  centuries  ;   and  the  pyramids  came 


Step  Pyramid  ot  Saqqara 

to  be  regarded  as  water  reservoirs  or  granaries  or  astronom- 
ical observatories.  Only  through  the  careful  architectural 
examination  of  Vyse  and  Perring,  1837-38,  has  the  real 
purpose  of  the  pyramids  been  scientifically  proved.  The 
English  discoveries  have  shown  that  it  is  more  than  prob- 
able that  the  group  of  pyramids  at  Abusir,  situated  farther 
to  the  south  of  Gize,  belong  to  the  Fifth  Dynasty,  which 
followed  on  the  throne  after  the  dynasty  of  Cheops. 

The  pyramids  which  join  those  on  the  south  at  Abusir 


654  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

and  cluster  around  the  curious  brick  pyramid  at  Saqqara  re- 
mained unopened  and  unexplored.  Even  at  the  time  when 
Mariette  was  in  charge  of  the  excavations  in  Egypt,  nothing 
was  done  to  solve  the  question  as  to  who  were  the  builders 
of  these  pyramids.  Mariette's  whole  energy  seems  to  have 
been  concentrated  on  reclaiming  valuable  antiquities  or 
large  inscriptions  from  the  desert  sands  ;  and  as  former  ex- 
aminations seem  to  have  taught  him  that  neither  gold  trea- 
sures nor  statues  nor  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  were  to  be 
found  in  the  pyramids,  he  never  attempted  to  open  those  at 
Saqqara.  He  always  avoided  also  the  demands  of  scholars 
to  examine  them.  They  were  —  as  he  firmly  believed  — 
of  only  minor  importance  in  comparison  with  the  gigantic 
structures  at  Gize.  And  moreover  in  all  probability  they 
had  been  plundered,  if  not  by  the  Egyptians  themselves  in 
ancient  times,  certainly  at  a  later  period  by  the  early  Chris- 
tians or  the  Arabs  under  the  caliphs.  And,  lastly,  he  was 
convinced  that  the  sepulchral  chambers  inside  would  show 
no  inscriptions,  so  that  for  all  the  trouble  the  explorer  would 
not  even  be  rewarded  by  finding  the  name  of  the  builder. 
This  view  of  the  famous  and  successful  archaeologist  was  not 
accepted  by  his  colleagues  in  Egyptology.  When  therefore 
in  1880  Maspero  gained  the  upper  hand  in  Egyptian  exca- 
vations, it  was  his  first  thought  to  insist  on  the  opening  of 
the  pyramids  at  Saqqara.  His  endeavors  were  realized  in 
the  years  1880-81,  when  it  was  shown  that  the  five  small 
pyramids  were  built  by  the  last  king  of  the  Fifth  and  the 
first  four  rulers  of  the  Sixth  Dynasty,  namely,  the  Pharaohs 
Onnos,  Othoes,  Phiops  I.,  Methusuphis,  and  Phiops  II. 
But  this  first  result  was  superseded  by  one  of  much  greater 
importance  ;  for  the  pyramids  were  not,  as  Mariette  had 
thought,  "  silent,"  but  they  spoke  by  means  of  thousands 
of  signs.  The  chambers  within  were  completely  covered 
with  inscriptions.  These  texts,  represented  by  over  4000 
lines,  are  the  oldest  Egvptian  literary  monuments  which  we 


DURING   I'jrii   CENTURY:   EGYPT  G55 

possess.  Although  they  may  not  reach  back  to  prehistoric 
times,  that  is,  before  the  foundation  of  the  Egyptian  state, 
as  Maspero  in  his  first  enthusiasm  wrote,  they  nevertheless 
date  back  to  the  earliest  historical  period,  to  the  beginning 
of  Egyptian  history,  /.  ^.,  the  time  of  King  Menes. 

The  contents  of  the  pyramid  texts  are  all  religious.  They 
contain  hymns  and  prayers,  magical  formulae  and  magical 
incantations,  which  were  intended  to  secure  life  eternal  in  the 
next  world  and  to  accompany  the  dead  to  the  realms  beyond. 
The  Egyptian  believed  in  a  life  after  death,  but  he  also  be- 
lieved that  the  deceased  needed  to  eat  and  drink  in  the  next 
world  the  same  as  in  this.  These  necessaries  of  life  were 
obtained  for  him  by  means  of  various  formulae.  The  de- 
ceased, in  one  passage,  is  addressed  thus  :  "  Receive  thy 
bread  which  does  not  dry  up,  and  thy  beer  which  does  not 
turn  sour,  for  thee  the  corn  is  cut  and  barley  is  harvested." 
Hunger  and  thirst  are  the  conditions  mostly  feared  by 
men,  as  they  bring  not  only  earthly  but  also  eternal 
death.  Against  these  dangerous  enemies,  therefore,  many 
of  these  incantations  are  directed.  In  one  of  them  we  read  : 
"  Hunger,  go  not  to  King  Pepi,  hurry  instead  into  the 
celestial  waters."  Pepi  is  satisfied  ;  he  has  no  hunger  be- 
cause of  the  bread  of  Horus,  which  he  has  eaten,  and  which 
his  eldest  daughter  has  prepared  for  him  in  order  that  he 
might  satisfy  himself  thereon.  Then  four  demons,  which 
protect  the  human  body,  are  called  to  "  drive  away  the 
hunger  in  the  body  of  Pepi  and  the  thirst  upon  his  lips." 
While  the  liberated  image  of  the  man,  his  other  "  Self," 
his  "  Psyche,"  remains  in  the  grave  upon  earth  eating  and 
drinking,  his  soul  in  the  form  of  a  bird  flies  to  heaven  or 
sails  with  the  Sun-god  by  day  in  his  bark  or  shines  as  a  star 
on  the  firmament. 

Nearly  all  these  texts,  which  reflect  the  manifold  popular 
ideas  of  life  after  death,  are  permeated  with  the  notion  that 
after  man  has  done  with  this  temporary  existence,  he  shall 


656  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

become  one  with  Osiris,  and  that  he  must  suffer  the  same 
fate  as  once  Osiris  suffered.  As  Osiris,  the  son  of  the  Earth- 
god  Keb  and  of  the  goddess  of  heaven  Newt,  was  killed 
by  his  brother  Set,  so  also  must  man  suffer  death.  And  as 
Horus  takes  revenge  against  the  accusers  and  murderer  of 
his  father  Osiris,  he  will  do  the  same  for  man.  A  hymn  to 
the  dead  says  :  "  Hear,  hear,  what  Horus  has  done  for  thee, 
he  has  slain  those  who  slew  thee,  he  has  bound  those  who 
bound  thee.  Ended  is  the  lamentation  in  the  hall  of  the 
gods,  thou  goest  out  to  heaven,  thy  son  Horus  leads  thee 
to  heaven  ;  to  thee  the  heavens  are  given  ;  to  thee  the  earth 
is  given  ;  to  thee  are  given  the  fields  of  the  Blessed." 

Most  of  the  sayings  contained  in  the  pyramid  texts  are 
composed  in  poetical  language,  practically  the  same  which 
runs  through  the  poetry  of  the  Hebrews  and  which  is 
known  as  parallelism.  It  is  made  up  by  allowing  one  sen- 
tence to  be  followed  by  one  or  more  which  in  contents  and 
form  are  equal  to  the  first.  In  other  respects  the  correct 
understanding  of  these  texts  is  extremely  difficult,  as  they 
mostly  contain  a  play  on  traditions,  legends  or  myths  which 
have  been  lost  or  with  which  we  are  not  acquainted.  At 
the  same  time  there  is  some  consolation  in  knowing  that 
many  of  these  texts  were  not  understood  even  at  the  time 
when  they  were  inscribed  in  the  pyramids  of  the  kings  of 
the  Fifth  and  Sixth  Dynasties.  The  several  chapters  show 
blunders  of  the  most  pronounced  type,  which  can  only  be 
explained  by  the  fact  that  the  scribes  themselves  did  not 
understand  their  meanings. 

The  discovery  and  publication  of  these  pyramid  texts  is 
not  only  of  value  for  the  history  of  the  Egyptian  religion, 
but  it  is  also  of  epoch-making  importance  for  Egyptian  phi- 
lology. For  these  texts  show  us  the  oldest  known  forms  of 
the  Egyptian  language.  Through  them  we  have  become 
acquainted  more  particularly  with  the  vocalization  of  the 
ancient  Egyptian  ;  they  have  given  us  for  the  first  time  an 


DURING  19™  CENTURY :   EGYPT  657 

insight  into  the  oldest  construction  and  inflexion  of  the 
verbs  ;  in  short,  nearly  every  branch  of  grammar  has  been 
most  unexpectedly  enriched  with  the  numerous  examples 
which  these  newly  discovered  sayings  offer.  But  it  will  take 
decades  in  order  to  raise  the  whole  linguistic  treasure  which 
they  contain,  and  to  put  it  to  use.  The  value  which  these 
pyramid  texts  have  for  Egyptology  will  perhaps  be  better 
understood  if  we  compare  them  with  the  Vedas,  the  oldest 
literary  monuments  of  India,  with  which  in  their  contents 
thev  are  closely  related.  Imagine  what  would  be  the  state 
of  the  science  of  Indogermanic  Philology  and  Indogermanic 
Archaeology  without  a  knowledge  of  these  oldest  literary 
productions  of  India!  In  this  wav  we  can  appreciate  the 
treasure  which  has  been  handed  down  to  the  science  of 
Egyptology,  and  in  fact  to  history  in  general,  by  the  un- 
locking of  the  pyramids  of  Saqqara. 

The  good  fortune  which  accompanied  Maspero  in  his 
opening  of  the  Onnos  pyramid  and  its  neighbors  caused  him 
to  attack  four  others  lying  in  the  cemetery  of  Saqqara,  but 
without  result.  They  contained  no  inscriptions.  Besides 
the  excavations  of  the  pyramids  the  examination  of  the  pri- 
vate tombs,  the  so-called  mastabas,  was  continued,  which  had 
been  begun  by  Lepsius  and  Mariette.  Near  Saqqara  a  large 
number  of  well  preserved  tombs  of  the  Old  and  Middle 
Empires  was  discovered  by  Maspero,  while  De  Morgan  had 
the  good  fortune  to  lay  open  the  greatest  of  the  known  mas- 
tabas near  the  pyramid  of  Othoes.  It  belonged  to  a  cer- 
tain Mereruka,  who  lived  under  the  first  kings  of  the  Sixth 
Dynasty,  and  consists  of  not  less  than  thirty-one  chambers 
and  passages,  most  of  which  were  furnished  with  fine  reliefs 
and  inscriptions. 

The  group  of  pyramids  of  Dahshur  which  joins  those 
of  Saqqara  on  the  south,  and  which  consists  of  three  pyra- 
mids of  limestone  and  two  of  Nile  mud  bricks,  had  up 
to  that  time  defied  all  attempts  to  explore  their  interior  or  to 


658  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

discover  the  name  of  their  builder.  In  the  spring  of  1894, 
however,  De  Morgan  attacked  the  northern  and  southern 
brick  pyramids  anew.  Having  first  examined  the  private 
tombs,  which  were  situated  around  about  the  northern  pyra- 
mid, he  discovered  that  the  material  of  which  the  pyramid 
consists  corresponded  to  that  of  the  tombs  to  the  north  of 
the  pyramid,  and  that  as  the  tombs,  according  to  their  in- 
scriptions, belong  to  the  period  of  the  Middle  Empire 
(about  2200-1800  B.  c),  the  pyramid  must  have  been  built 
at  the  same  period.  As,  moreover,  the  entrance  to  the  burial 
chamber  of  these  sepulchres  was  not  in  the  sepulchral  build- 
ing itself  as  in  the  more  ancient  periods,  but  outside  of  it, 
De  Morgan  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  entrance  to 
the  pyramid  must  be  looked  for  between  its  base  and  the 
surrounding  wall.  Following  this  idea,  he  discovered  in 
the  ground  to  the  north  of  the  monument  a  shaft  leading  to 
a  number  of  underground  chambers  which  were  all  situated 
in  one  passage.  Further  systematic  examination  led  to  the 
discovery  of  a  second  gallery.  The  subterranean  tomb  cham- 
bers were  half  filled  with  rubbish  and  ruins.  The  coffins  had 
been  opened  and  ransacked  by  thieves  in  ancient  times. 
The  remains  of  the  skeletons  were  strewn  about  upon  the 
floor  amid  broken  alabaster  and  terra-cotta  vases. 

De  Morgan  gave  orders  to  remove  the  rubbish  and  dust 
of  the  rooms  and  to  lay  bare  the  naked  rock.  Through 
these  troublesome  labors  it  was  possible  to  discover  two 
hollows  in  the  floor  of  one  of  the  galleries  in  which  a  trea- 
sure of  gold  and  jewels  was  found,  the  finest  which  the  art 
of  the  Egyptian  gold-workers  could  produce.  These  valu- 
ables had  been  originally  deposited  in  a  wooden  box,  inlaid 
with  gold.  The  box  was  destroyed,  as  the  wood  was  rotten, 
and  the  treasure  lay  in  the  sands.  Breastplates  of  gold  and 
precious  stones,  golden  necklaces,  bracelets,  shells  made  of 
gold,  which  were  strung  on  chains,  were  mixed  with  scarabasi 
of  amethyst,  lapis  lazuli  or  enamel,  which  were  set  in  golden 


DURING   19TH   CENTURY:   EGYPT 


659 


rings,  together  with  silver  mirrors  and  beautiful  vases.  All 
these  articles  show  great  skill  in  workmanship,  and  give  the 
most  laudable  proof  of  the  art  and  taste  of  the  Egyptian 
goldsmiths.  The  jewels  themselves  probably  ornamented 
the  persons  of  two  princesses,  Hathor  Set  and  Merit,  wkose 
tombs   are   situa- 


ted  near  the  spot 
where  they  were 
found.  They  be- 
longed to  the 
families  of  the 
Twelfth  Dynasty 
and  were  related 
in  a  manner  at 
present  unknown 
to  the  kings 
Usertesen  II., 
Usertesen  III. 
and  Amenemhat 
III.      One  of  these   Pharaohs  was  probably  buried  under 


iM<Mk^'i\i;  MLJn 


Breastplate  ot"  King  Amenemhat  III. 


one  of  these  brick  pyramids,  although  his  sepulchral  cham- 
ber has  as  yet  not  been  discovered.  As  we  shall  see  later 
on  that  the  kings  Usertesen  III.  and  Amenemhat  III.  were 
buried  in  the  pyramids  of  El-Lahian  and  Hawara,  it  is 
probable  that  the  northern  brick  pyramid  of  Dahshur  was 
built  by  Usertesen  II. 

No  less  glorious  were  the  results  which  De  Morgan 
gained  at  the  second  southern  brick  pyramid  of  Dahshur. 
Within  the  walls  which  inclosed  the  pyramid  territory  he 
found  many  subterranean  tombs,  one  of  which  belonged  to 
King  Hor  hitherto  unknown,  and  another  lying  close  by  to 
the  princess  Nebhotep.  Although  the  first  had  been  visited 
in  ancient  times,  nevertheless  the  mummy  of  the  monarch 
lay  unmolested  in  its  ebony  coffin,  ornamented  with  a  golden 
inscription.     A  gold  mask  set  with  crystal  eyes  covered  its 


GGO  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

head ;  breastplates  and  other  ornaments  of  value  decorated 
the  mortal  remains  of  the  ruler.  A  wonderful  statue  of  the 
protecting  deity  of  the  king,  nearly  four  feet  high  and  here 
and  there  ornamented  with  gold  plates,  was  also  discovered 
in  a  wooden  box  which  had  the  form  of  a  shrine. 

The  sepulchral  chamber  ot  the  princess  was  quite  undis- 
turbed. All  the  objects  were  in  the  same  place  as  when 
deposited  at  the  time  of  the  funeral  4000  years  ago.  The 
corpse  lay  peacefully  in  its  coffin  of  acacia  wood,  which  was 
ornamented  with  gold  stripes.  A  silver  diadem  encircled 
her  head,  and  a  rich  necklace  of  gold  and  carnelian  beads, 
the  ends  of  which  ended  in  the  heads  of  hawks,  surrounded 
her  neck.  A  pretty  little  dagger  stuck  in  her  belt.  Arms 
and  legs  were  ornamented  with  circlets  of  beads  of  gold, 
carnelian  and  emeralds.  On  her  brow  shone  the  royal  in- 
signia, —  a  golden  eagle's  head  and  the  head  of  the  Uraeus 
serpent,  which  were  inlaid  with  emeralds  and  carnelian. 
Near  her,  besides  a  club,  were  also  deposited  other  signs  of 
royalty,  a  sceptre  and  a  whip,  both  of  very  artistic  workman- 
ship. Although  we  cannot  with  certainty  fix  the  historical 
position  of  King  Hor  and  Princess  Nebhotep,  yet  we  may 
assume  from  the  style  of  the  objects  found  in  the  tomb  that 
they  also  belong  to  the  period  of  the  Middle  Empire.  The 
brick  pyramid  under  which  they  were  discovered  must  ac- 
cordingly be  placed  in  the  same  period. 

In  the  following  year,  1895,  ^^^  stone  pyramid  situated 
between  the  two  brick  pyramids  was  examined  by  De  Mor- 
gan. It  had  been  badly  disturbed  and  almost  carried  away. 
By  this  excavation  it  was  proved  that  it  was  the  tomb  of 
Amenemhat  II.  of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty,  and  therefore 
belonged  to  the  same  period  as  the  other  two  pyramids. 
Within  the  surrounding  wall  of  this  pyramid  also  other 
smaller  tombs  were  laid  out  for  members  of  the  royal  family. 
Two  of  them,  in  which  two  princesses  had  been  buried,  had 
fortunately  escaped  the  hands  of  the  ancient  grave  robbers. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY :   EGYPT  GGl 

They  were  close  by  two  large  blocks  of  limestone,  and  the 
coffins,  as  well  as  the  chambers  in  which  sepulchral  offerings 
were  offered,  had  remained  intact,  and  were  found  in  the 
same  condition  in  which  they  were  the  day  when  the  two 
princesses  were  buried  in  them.  Here  were  also  found  a 
number  of  valuable  ornaments,  veritable  masterpieces  of  the 
goldsmith's  art,  among  which  a  dagger  with  inlaid  hilt  and 
two  fillets  of  gold  inlaid  with  stones  and  enamels,  made  in 
the  shape  of  wreaths,  excelled  all  others  in  beauty  and  fine- 
ness of  workmanship. 

As  it  is  very  probable  that  the  second  large  pyramid  at 
Dahshur,  which  is  the  largest  of  all  pyramids  next  to  those 
of  Gize,  was  built  by  the  predecessor  of  Cheops,  Pharaoh 
Snofru,  there  only  remains  to  be  determined  the  age  and 
the  builder's  name  of  the  so-called  "  Blunted  Pyramid," 
which  it  is  hoped  will  soon  be  ascertained. 

The  two  stone  pyramids  lying  to  the  south  of  Dahshur 
at  LIsht  have  for  centuries  been  used  as  stone  quarries,  so 
that  they  look  more  like  two  hills  rising  from  the  edge  of 
the  desert  than  the  works  of  man.  These  have  also  been 
recently  examined,  first  by  Maspero  In  1883-86  and  later 
by  Gautier  and  Jecquier  in  1894-95.  Through  their  ex- 
cavations It  was  discovered  that  they  likewise  belong  to  the 
period  of  the  Middle  Empire,  and  that  the  southern  one  is 
the  tomb  of  Usertesen  I.,  while  the  northern  In  all  proba- 
bility is  that  of  Amenemhat  I.,  the  founder  of  the  Twelfth 
Dynasty.  Up  to  the  present  it  has  been  found  impossible 
to  enter  the  sepulchral  chambers,  because  through  Infiltra- 
tion the  chambers  have  been  completely  filled  with  water. 
Nevertheless  Gautier  and  Jecquier  were  able  to  lay  open 
many  tombs  and  other  monuments  near  the  southern  pyra- 
mid, above  all  a  kind  of  "  hall,"  In  which  were  deposited 
for  some  unexplained  reason  ten  life-size  sitting  figures  of 
Usertesen  I.  marvellously  wrought  in  limestone. 

Usually   the  pyramid  field   In  the  south    ends  with   the 


662 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


pyramid  of  Medum,  like  the  pyramid  of  Zoser  at  Saqqara, 
a  step  pyramid,  which  originally  consisted  of  seven  towers, 
of  which  only  three  remain,  one  rising  above  the  other. 
In  the  year  1882  these  towers  were  examined  by  Maspero, 
who  gained  an  entrance,  and  through  a  long  passage  reached 
the  sepulchral  chamber  of  the  pvramid.  This  he  found  had 
been  plundered,  and  its  coffin  was  missing.     Twelve  years 


The  Step  Pyramid  of  Medum 


later,  Petrie  continued  the  excavations  here,  being  successful 
in  discovering  a  small  temple,  which  was  erected  on  the  east 
side  of  the  pyramid  and  intended  for  the  worship  of  the 
king  who  was  buried  there.  It  is  a  plain  sanctuary  built 
of  limestone,  consisting  of  only  two  chambers  and  ending  at 
the  foot  of  the  pyramid  in  a  court,  in  which  stood  an  altar 
for  offerings  between  two  limestone  tablets,  rounded  at  the 
top.  Neither  inscriptions  nor  reliefs  are  found  on  the  walls. 
Everything  is  plain  and  in  the  simplest  form,  and  we  should 


DURING  lOTH  CENTURY:   EGYPT  663 

not  have  known  to  whom  this  Httle  temple  was  dedicated, 
and  who  was  buried  in  the  pyramid,  had  not  at  a  later  time 
some  visitors  scribbled  their  names  and  the  purposes  of 
their  visit.  From  these  writings  we  learn  that  the  pyran;id 
of  Mediam  belonged  to  the  very  ancient  king  Snofru,  the 
predecessor  of  Cheops,  and  that  in  the  sanctuary  offerings 
were  made  to  the  manes  of  this  Pharaoh.  Consequently 
we  have  to  regard  the  latter  as  the  oldest  known  Egyptian 
temple.  Thus  we  are  now  acquainted  with  the  two  pyra- 
mids of  King  Snofru,  the  one  at  Dahshur  and  the  other  at 
Medum.  This  fact  agrees  with  what  is  stated  in  the  in- 
scriptions, in  which  two  pyramids,  one  in  the  south  and 
another  one,  are  mentioned.  In  which  of  these  the  ruler 
was  buried,  and  why  he  had  built  two  such  enormous  tombs, 
remains  an  open  question. 

Together  with  the  pyramids  at  Mediam  we  can  fix  the 
date  of  the  large  number  of  private  tombs  which  are  situ- 
ated to  the  north  and  south  of  it.  By  order  of  Mariette 
they  were  examined,  and  a  large  number  of  interesting  wall 
sculptures  and  fine  statues  were  discovered  in  them.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  they  were  built  about  the  same  time 
as  the  pyramids,  that  is,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Old 
Empire.  The  sanctuary  by  the  Medum  pyramid  is  the 
only  well  preserved  mortuary  temple  of  all  those  which 
were  built  near  the  pyramid  tombs. 

A  kind  of  temple  of  the  Old  Empire  was  made  known  to 
us  through  the  excavations  carried  on  by  the  Berlin  Mu- 
seum from  the  winter  of  1898  to  1900.  From  inscriptions  it 
was  previously  known  that  the  rulers  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty 
were  particularly  devoted  to  the  worship  of  the  Sun-god,  Re, 
regarding  themselves  as  his  descendants.  Each  of  these 
Pharaohs  built  a  sanctuary  to  Re,  consisting  of  a  stone 
foundation  with  sloping  walls,  upon  which  an  obelisk  was 
erected.  Through  the  excavations  at  Abusir  such  a  monu- 
ment has  actually  been  brought  to  light.      Unfortunately 


664  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

this  sanctuary  has  suffered  more  than  any  other  temple  from 
the  ravages  of  time,  chiefly  through  having  been  used  as  a 
quarry  for  many  years  by  the  fellaheen.  It  was  constructed 
by  King  N-user-Re,  and  called  Seshep-eb-Re  (*'  Pleasing 
the  heart  of  the  Sun-god"). 

The  temple  was  built  exactly  from  east  to  west,  rising 
upon  an  artificial  platform.  A  street  led  up  to  it  from  the 
town  which  was  situated  in  the  plain.  Through  a  magni- 
ficent gate  one  entered  an  open  court,  at  the  end  of  which 
the  imposing  structure  of  the  obelisk  presented  itself  to  the 
eye.  Before  the  obelisk  there  stood  a  large  altar  measuring 
not  less  than  twenty  by  eighteen  and  one  third  feet,  entirely 
preserved.  It  consists  of  a  flat  and  a  round  middle  piece 
surrounded  by  four  huge  slabs,  which  have  the  form  of  the 
Egyptian  hieroglyph  for  kotep  ("sacrifice  ").  To  the  right 
of  the  entrance  gate,  in  the  open  air,  nine  alabaster  basins 
had  been  placed  in  the  court.  They  are  still  standing  at 
the  spot  where  thev  were  discovered.  Part  of  the  court  had 
been  set  apart  for  the  killing  of  the  victims,  as  is  proved  by 
the  small  furrows  still  extant  through  which  the  blood 
flowed.  The  entire  courtyard  seems  to  have  been  sur- 
rounded by  covered  galleries,  which  in  part  were  adorned 
with  beautiful  reliefs.  Although  even  these  are  terribly 
mutilated,  yet  enough  can  be  recognized  to  ascertain  that 
they  represent  a  festival  celebrated  under  the  Pharaoh. 
Still  finer  are  the  reliefs  with  which  several  mortuary 
chambers  on  the  southern  base  of  the  obelisk  were  adorned, 
belonging  to  the  best  specimens  of  Egyptian  relief  art 
known  to  us.  Especially  vivid  are  the  scenes  which  repre- 
sent life  in  ancient  Egypt  during  the  three  seasons  of  the 
year.  Above  all  things  these  reliefs  prove  that  the 
houses  of  the  gods  of  the  Old  Empire  were  fitted  out  just 
the  same  as  those  of  later  times,  and  did  not,  as  vyas  for  a 
long  time  believed,  show  only  bare  walls  devoid  of  every 
kind  of  ornament. 


DURING   19TJI  CENTURY:   EGYPT  665 

Concerning  the  old  town  of  Memphis,  situated  near  the 
modern  villages  of  Bidrashen  and  Mitrahena,  only  little  is 
known.  The  enormous  mound  which  marks  its  site  has 
been  little,  if  at  all,  explored;  and  of  the  great  sanctuary  of 
Ptah  which  adorned  the  town,  little  more  is  left  than  the 
ti.vo  colossal  statues  of  Rameses  II.,  which  once  stood  at  its 
entrance,  one  ot  which  was  discovered  by  Caviglia  and 
Soane  in  1820,  and  the  other  in  more  recent  times. 

We  will  now  leave  the  ancient  metropolis  and  turn  to 
another  district,  which  has  for  a  long  time  been  neglected 
by  archaeologists,  but  which  during  the  last  decade  has 
yielded  us  rich  treasures,  namely,  the  Fayiim. 


Ill 


THE    FAYUM 

The  Fayum  is  a  depression  in  the  desert  plain,  situated 
on  the  western  edge  of  the  Nile  vallev,  which  even  in  an- 
cient times  had  been  turned  into  most  fertile  land  by  a 
branch  of  the  Nile.  The  ancient  capital  of  this  district  was 
Shedet.  The  Greeks  of  older  times  called  it  Crocodilopolis, 
because  the  crocodiles,  sacred  to  the  local  deity  Suchos, 
were  held  in  veneration  there.  Under  the  Ptolemies  its 
name  was  changed  to  Arsinoe. 

Up  to  the  middle  of  the  seventies  important  finds  of 
monuments  had  not  been  made  in  it.  But  in  the  year  1878 
were  offered  for  sale  large  and  small  papyrus  fragments, 
some  of  which  were  covered  with  Greek,  Coptic  or  Arabic 
characters;  others  with  Latin,  Persian  and  Hebrew,  com- 
prising literary  fragments  and  letters  of  various  kinds. 
Arab  peasants  had  hit  upon  the  archives  and  dust  bins  of 
the  old  provincial  town  and  had  brought  these  manuscripts 
to  the  market  at  Cairo,  whence  they  found  their  way  into 
different  European  museums,  for  the  most  part  those  of 


666 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


Vienna  and  Berlin.  This  sensational  find  was  followed  by 
a  second,  which  was  also  made  in  the  nome  of  Crocodilopo- 
lis.  I  mean  those  wonderful  and  masterly  Hellenistic  por- 
traits, which  were  placed  on  the  faces  of  the  mummies,  and 

which  passed  into  the 
possession  of  the  Vien- 
nese carpet  dealer  Th. 
Graf.^ 

These  discoveries  at 
once  attracted  the  atten-- 
tion  of  scholars  to  the 
Fayiam,  which  up  to 
that  time  had  been  some- 
what neglected.  This 
was  probably  the  rea- 
son why  Petrie  began 
working  on  its  different 
sites. 

Two  important  ques- 
tions have  long  been 
asked  in  connection 
with  the  Fayum :  first, 
as  to  the  site  of  Lake 
Moeris,  and  second,  as 
to  the  site  of  the  Laby- 
rinth. Herodotus  savs 
that  an  ancient  Egyptian  king  named  Moeris  ordered  a 
large  lake  to  be  dug  out  in  the  neighborhood  of  Crocodil- 
opolis,  the  circumference  of  which  was  3600  stadia,  and 
which  was  300  feet  deep  in  its  deepest  part.  In  the  middle 
of  this  lake  stood  two  pyramids,  the  total   height  of  which 

^  Who  sold  many  of  them  to  museums  and  art  amateurs  in  Europe  and 
America.  Two  of  them  are  in  the  Egyptian  Section  of  the  Archaeological 
Museum  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  portrait  here  given  is  one 
of  the  latter.  —  The  Editor. 


Portrait  painted  in  Wax 

(  From  the  Fayum  ) 


DURING  19TII  CENTURY:   EGYPT  6G7 

was  600  feet,  300  feet  over  the  ground  and  300  feet  below 
the  ground.  On  top  of  each  pyramid  was  a  colossal  stone 
statue  seated  upon  a  throne.  The  water  of  the  lake  did 
not  come  from  a  spring,  but  from  the  Nile  by  means  of  a 
canal :  six  months  it  flowed  into  the  lake  and  six  months  it 
flowed  back  into  the  Nile. 

While  in  olden  times  it  was  generally  assumed  that 
Birket-Qarian,  situated  in  the  northwest  of  the  Fayum,  was 
identical  with  Lake  Moeris,  Linant  Bey,  a  French  engineer 
in  the  Egyptian  service,  ventured  in  1 840  to  express  him- 
self as  being  opposed  to  this  view  because  of  certain  diffi- 
culties arising  from  the  diff^erences  in  the  level.  He  there- 
fore placed  it  in  the  southeast  of  the  province  ;  but  even  this 
had  its  difficulties,  because  then  the  Lake  Moeris  of  Linant 
would  not  have  the  same  dimensions  as  that  of  Herodotus. 
In  spite  of  this,  however,  the  hypothesis  put  forward  by  the 
French  engineer  was  the  only  one  accepted  for  a  long  time, 
and  Lepsius  seems  to  have  agreed  with  it.  Recently  other 
localities  have  been  proposed :  for  instance,  one  by  the 
Englishman  Cope  Whitehouse,  —  Wadi  Rayan,  situated  in 
the  southwest  of  the  Fayum. 

In  the  year  1888  Petrie  carefully  examined  the  pyramids 
of  Biahmu,  situated  a  little  over  three  miles  north  of 
Arsinoe,  and  thereby  gave  quite  another  aspect  to  the 
question  concerning  the  site  of  Lake  Moeris.  It  appeared 
that  the  "pyramids  "  were  not  pyramids  at  all,  but  support- 
ing walls  for  two  colossal  sitting  figures.  But  of  these 
figures  made  of  sandstone  only  a  few  fragments  were  dis- 
covered: the  nose  of  one,  parts  of  a  throne,  and  fragments 
of  inscriptions  which  bore  the  name  of  King  Amenem- 
hat  I.  Yet  these  small  pieces  were  sufficient  to  enable 
Petrie  to  calculate  the  original  size  of  these  two  monuments. 
According  to  him  the  statues  were  about  thirty-five  feet  high, 
which  would  make  the  total  height,  including  the  masonry 
of  the  base,  sixty  feet.  If  we  now  remember  Herodotus' 
49 


668  EXPLOHATIOXS   IX    JilliLE  LANDS 

description  of  the  two  pyramids  in  Lake  Moeris,  it  is  not 
improbable  that  the  two  colossal  statues  discovered  bv 
Petrie  at  Biahmu  are  those  pyramids  with  the  colossi  vyhich 
are  said  to  haye  stood  in  Lake  Moeris.  The  Greek  trav- 
eller or  his  informant  had  possibly  visited  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  "  Lake  "  at  the  time  of  the  Nile  inundation  ; 
from  a  distance  he  saw  the  curious  monuments  standing 
out  of  the  water,  and  was  thereby  deceived  as  to  their  true 
condition. 

With  this  discoverv  we  should  have  gained  a  starting- 
point  from  which  to  fix  the  true  site  of  the  ancient  Lake 
Moeris.  It  must,  according  to  this  theorv,  be  sought  nei- 
ther in  the  southeast  nor  in  the  southwest  of  the  Faviim, 
but  to  the  northwest  of  Arsinoe.  We  would  therefore 
come  back  to  the  district  of  Birket-Oarian,  and  in  this  case 
the  old  conception  would  again  claim  precedence,  namelv, 
that  this  is  covered  bv  Lake  Moeris  or  at  least  is  a  part  of 
it.  Then,  however,  Herodotus  does  not  seem  to  be  right 
in  saving  that  the  lake  was  an  artificial  work  constructed  by 
King  Moeris,  for  Birket-Qarian  is  not  of  human  creation, 
but  a  natural  lake  dating  from  the  remotest  times.  Never- 
theless the  statement  of  Herodotus  stands  out  as  unique. 
The  "  pvramid  texts,"  the  compilation  of  w^hich  goes  back 
to  the  remotest  antiquitv,  mention  the  Faviim  under  the 
name  of"  Sea-countrv."  Thev  recognize,  therefore,  a  lake 
as  the  characteristic  feature  of  this  district,  which  can  be  no 
other  than  Lake  Moeris.  For  w-e  cannot  reasonably  sup- 
pose that  the  country  had  two  lakes,  one  the  Birket-Oarun, 
and  the  other  the  artificial  Lake  Moeris,  which  was  con- 
structed later,  nor  is  this  anywhere  mentioned.  Strabo, 
likewise,  who  is  a  most  reliable  informant,  does  not  mention 
"  Lake  Moeris  "  as  an  artificial  lake,  but  looks  upon  it  as 
a  natural  inland  sea,  which  "was  as  large  as  an  ocean  and 
had  the  color  of  the  ocean,"  and  the  banks  of  which  looked 
like  the    beach    of   the    ocean.      We    must  also  take  into 


DURING  IQTii   CENTURY:   EGYPT  <)00 

account  the  fact  that  the  supposed  constructor  "  Mctris  "  is 
a  pure  fiction.  The  name  Mcrris  is  Egyptian,  and  means 
nothing  more  or  less  than  "great  sea."  By  this  designation 
the  lake  situated  in  the  Fayiam  was  known  to  the  people. 
As  has  often  happened,  the  Greeks  transferred  this  name 
which  the  lake  bore  to  some  supposed  originator,  whence 
arose  a  King  Mceris. 

We  have  therefore  good  ground  for  assuming  that  Lake 
Moeris  was  a  natural  lake  corresponding  to  the  Birket- 
Qarun.  Only  the  sluices  were  artificial  which  regulated 
the  infiux  of  water  from  the  Nile  at  the  entrance  to  the 
Fayum  near  El-Lahun,  and  the  dikes  and  dams  which  en- 
closed the  lake,  and  which  were  to  protect  the  country  thus 
reclaimed  from  being  submerged  by  the  inundation. 

Next  to  Lake  Moeris  the  traveller  was  told  of  a  sight 
which  baffled  all  description,  also  situated  in  the  Fayum, 
namely,  the  Labvrinth.  Herodotus,  who  saw  it,  speaks  of 
it  with  the  highest  admiration,  and  places  it  not  only  above 
all  Greek  buildings  in  magnificence,  but  also  above  the 
pyramids,  at  which  he  was  so  much  astounded.  According 
to  his  description  it  was  a  great  construction  like  a  temple, 
with  twelve  courts  and  three  thousand  rooms,  of  which  one 
half  were  above  and  the  other  half  under  ground.  At  one 
end  was  a  pyramid.  As  builders  of  the  Labyrinth  Herod- 
otus mentions  the  Dodekarchy,  that  is,  those  native  minor 
princes,  who  before  the  reign  of  Psemtek,  663  b,  c,  had 
divided  the  country  among  them  under  the  suzerainty  of 
the  Assyrian  or  Ethiopian  kings.  Manetho,  however,  who 
was  well  versed  in  Egypt's  past  history,  ascribes  the  erection 
of  this  building  to  Lachares,  a  king  of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty, 
who  would  correspond  to  Amenemhat  IIL 

The  site  of  the  Labyrinth  has  been  debated  no  less  than 
that  of  Lake  Mceris.  Lepsius  assumed  that  it  could  only 
have  existed  near  the  pyramids  of  Hawara,  in  the  southeast 
corner  of  the   Fayiam,  and  accordingly  took  the  ruins  of 


670  EXPLOUATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

some  brick  buildings  at  that  place  to  be  the  remains  of  this 
giant  structure.  His  hypothesis  has  often  been  doubted, 
inasmuch  as  it  turned  out  that  the  remains  of  buildings 
which  he  had  taken  to  be  the  Labyrinth  did  not  belong  to 
it,  but  that  they  were  the  houses  of  a  Roman  village,  which 
stood  there  in  later  times. 

Now  through  Petrie's  excavations  Lepsius'  hypothesis 
has  been  proved  correct,  with  the  exception  of  the  Roman 
houses.  Under  the  remains  of  these  walls  is  a  stratum  of 
broken  stone  six  feet  thick,  under  which  again  the  mortar 
in  the  foundation  of  a  building  can  be  distinctly  traced. 
This  field  of  ruins  is,  according  to  Petrie,  large  enough  to 
include  not  only  the  precincts  of  the  temple  of  Karnak  and 
Luxor,  but  quite  a  number  of  other  temples  besides.  This 
extent  precisely  agrees  with  that  of  the  Labyrinth,  as  we 
could  imagine  it  from  the  descriptions  of  Herodotus  and 
Strabo.  Its  position  also  agrees  with  what  Strabo  says, 
namely,  that  it  was  thirty  to  forty  stadia  (about  four  to  five 
English  miles)  from  the  entrance  to  the  Fayum  canal.  And 
lastly  it  agrees  also  with  the  fact  that  according  to  the  ex- 
cavations of  Petrie  the  pyramid  at  Hawara,  which  joins  this 
field  of  ruins,  was  the  tomb  of  Amenemhat  IIL,  probably 
the  same  that  Manetho  calls  King  Lachares,  the  builder  of 
the  Labyrinth. 

Unfortunately  an  architectural  plan  can  no  longer  be  ob- 
tained from  the  ruins  which  remain.  It  may  be  reasonably 
assumed  that  the  building  was  a  temple.  Its  complete  de- 
struction must  probably  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that,  as 
Pliny  says,  this  giant  structure  was  used  as  a  stone  quarry 
for  centuries,  and  entirely  cleared  off  from  the  face  of  the 
earth  excepting  those  small  stones  which  could  serve  no 
possible  purpose.  So  we  see  that  the  vexed  question 
of  the  site  of  the  Labyrinth  cannot  be  definitely  settled 
any  more  than  that  of  Lake  Mneris.  As  important  as 
are   the  solutions  of  these   problems  for  science,  they  are 


DURING   lO'ii   CENTURY.    EGYPT  G71 

overshadowed  by  three  other  discoveries,  which  Petrie  also 
fortunately  made  in  the  "Sea-country"  of  the  Fayum. 

To  the  north  of  the  pyramid  of  Hawara,  a  large  cemetery 
extends  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  Shedet  (Crocodilopolis  = 
Arsinoe),  from  the  times  of  the  Egyptian  Middle  Ages  (2000 
B.  c),  had  buried  their  dead.  The  graves  of  the  earlier 
generations  have  been  destroyed,  while  those  of  the  Grseco- 
Roman  epoch,  which  were  built  under  the  Ptolemaic  kings 
and  Roman  emperors,  are  in  a  remarkably  fine  state  of 
preservation.  Many  bodies  have  been  brought  to  light  in 
them,  including  over  sixty,  which  bore  the  portrait  of  the 
deceased  painted  on  thin  cedar  wood  in  wax  colors,  placed 
over  their  faces.  These  mummy  pictures  from  Hawara 
agree  in  style  and  workmanship  with  the  Graf  portraits, 
which  came  from  Ruba'at,  and  some  of  them  compare  in 
beauty  and  execution  very  favorably  with  the  latter.  Be- 
sides those  bodies,  which  were  ornamented  with  portraits, 
also  a  large  number  of  others  have  been  found,  furnished  in 
the  pure  Egyptian  style,  which,  like  the  former,  date  from 
the  second  or  third  century  before  our  era. 

Quite  different  is  the  picture  of  a  second  ruined  site  in 
the  Fayum,  which  is  situated  only  about  six  miles  to  the 
southeast  of  Hawara.  There,  near  the  present  El-Lahun, 
on  the  borders  of  the  desert.  King  Usertesen  II.  of  the 
Twelfth  Dynasty  built  a  residence,  in  which  he  lived,  to- 
gether with  all  his  court.  Near  this  town,  which  received 
the  name  He  Up- User  Us  en  ("Satisfied  is  Usertesen  "),  he 
built  also  his  pyramidal  tomb,  in  which  he  wished  to  find 
his  last  resting-place.  Soon  after  the  death  of  the  king  this 
place  —  now  called  Kahun — was  abandoned  and  deserted 
by  its  inhabitants,  so  that  it  was  not  inhabited  for  more  than 
a  century.  This  citv  ruin  Petrie  also  discovered  and  exca- 
vated, succeeding  even  in  making  a  ground  plan  of  it. 

A  first  glance  at  the  arrangement  of  the  town  shows 
that  it  is  not  the  result  of  a  gradual  growth,  but  that  it  arose 


672 


EXPLORATIONS   IN    HIHLE  LANDS 


at  once  as  a  whole.  It  was  square  shaped,  and  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  wall,  which  measured  a  little  over  1312  feet  on 
each  side,  so  that  the  area  of  the  town  was  193,360  square 
yards.  A  thick  wall  divided  the  town  into  two  parts,  a 
greater,  which  contained  the  houses  of  the  better  class  of 
people,  higher  officials  and  courtiers,  and  a  smaller  for  the 
common  people,  workmen  and  shopkeepers.  Each  of  the 
two  parts  of  the  city  was  intersected  by  a  principal  street, 


Pyramid  of  El-Lahun,  Fayum 

from  which  the  other  streets  branched  off.  The  houses  of 
the  working  classes  were  simple  enough.  A  small  courtyard, 
in  the  middle  of  which  stood  a  receptacle  for  corn,  near 
which  were  two  or  three  living-rooms  and  perhaps  also  a 
stable  or  shed  for  cattle,  w^as  about  all  they  contained. 

Larger  houses  were  very  rarely  found.  In  these,  likewise, 
the  principal  portion  of  the  premises  was  the  court,  where, 
as  in  modern  Kgypt,  the  inhabitants  spent  the  greater  part 
of  the  day.       A  colonnade  on  one  side  of  the  court  shaded 


DURING   ID  I II   CENTURY:    EGYPT  G73 

the  whole  space,  furnishing  ample  shelter  against  the  rays  of 
an  African  sun.  From  the  courtyard  one  entered  the  wo- 
men's apartments,  the  "  harem,"  the  principal  room  of  which 
was  an  open  court  surrounded  with  colonnades.  1  owards 
another  side  a  door  led  from  the  courtyard  to  the  dining- 
rooms,  and  farther,  into  the  sleeping-apartments  of  the  owner 
and  his  grown-up  sons.  Behind  these  were  the  spacious 
kitchens  and  stables.  Servants'  rooms,  larder  and  a  granary, 
which  was  filled  through  a  door  reached  by  a  ladder,  com- 
pleted the  arrangements  of  such  an  Egyptian  house.  In 
the  buildings  there  were  discovered  all  sorts  of  remains  of 
the  ancient  inhabitants  :  pots  and  bowls,  plates  and  little 
lamps  of  earthenware,  sewing  needles  in  bronze,  flint  knives, 
balls  of  wool,  fishing  nets,  toys  and  simple  ornaments. 

Rich  booty  was  obtained  from  the  rubbish  heaps,  upon 
which  atone  time  potsherds  and  old  paper  had  been  thrown. 
Especially  the  fragments  of  papyri  discovered  in  this  way 
are  the  most  important  for  us,  as  up  to  the  present  only 
verv'tew  documents  of  the  profane  literature  of  this  period 
have  come  down  to  us.  Their  contents  are  various  :  to 
the  literary  pieces,  such  as  parts  of  a  papyrus  on  medicine, 
like  the  famous  one  of  Ebers,  or  a  book  on  veterinary  medi- 
cine, must  be  added  all  sorts  of  private  letters,  official  doc- 
uments, bills  and  such  like.  And  so  by  means  of  these  we 
gain  an  interesting  insight  into  the  life  of  a  small  Egyptian 
town,  an  insight  which  cannot  be  gained  from  the  tomb  in- 
scriptions and  the  sepulchral  objects  deposited  with  the  dead. 

Similar  are  the  results  obtained  by  the  excavation  of  a 
second  town  in  the  FayQm,  the  ruins  of  which  are  called  to- 
dav  Gurob.  This  town  is  about  four  or  five  hundred  years 
later  than  Kahun,  above  described.  Its  existence  was  like- 
wise of  only  short  duration.  It  joined  a  temple  founded 
by  Thothmes  III.  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century 
before  Christ,  and  was  deserted,  after  many  struggles,  under 
the  successor  of  Rameses  II.,  King  Merenptah,  1300  b.  c. 


674  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


IV 

el-'amarna 


To  the  same  period  as  Gurob  belongs  a  third  city,  which, 
however,  was  not  a  mere  provincial  town,  but  as  a  roval  resi- 
dence played  an  important  part  in  the  political  and  religious 
development  of  the  Pharaonic  kingdom,  —  the  city  of  El- 
'Amarna.  It  is  situated  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Nile  about 
halfway  between  Thebes  and  Memphis,  and  owes  its  founda- 
tion to  that  religious  revolutionist  and  fanatic  Amenophis 
IV.  This  ruler  had  made  the  bold  attempt  to  reform  the 
Egyptian  religion  and  to  put  in  the  place  of  the  numerous 
old  gods,  concerning  whom  distorted  ideas  had  grown  up,  the 
worship  of  the  planetary  system  of  the  sun.  Whether 
the  old  capital  Thebes,  in  which  his  forefathers  resided, 
reminded  him  too  much  of  the  god  Ammon,  whom  he  per- 
secuted, and  who  had  a  large  temple  there,  or  whether  his 
revolutionary  ideas  found  strong  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
orthodox  priests,  is  not  yet  known  to  us.  Certain  it  is  that 
Echenaten  ("Spirit  of  the  Sun  "  )  —  the  name  he  had  taken 
in  place  of  Amenophis,  in  which  the  hated  name  of 
"  Ammon  "  occurs  —  broke  up  the  court  at  Thebes  and 
built  a  new  residence  at  El-'Amarna  in  the  plain,  whither 
he  removed  with  all  his  court.  The  town  grew  rapidly. 
Temples  and  palaces  arose.  Near  the  royal  castle  stood 
the  houses  of  the  aristocracy  in  the  midst  of  well  attended 
gardens.  But  this  glory  was  of  short  duration.  Soon  after 
the  death  of  the  king  a  reaction  set  in  and  finally  prevailed ; 
the  court  was  once  more  removed  to  Thebes,  and  the  newly 
founded  city  decayed  rapidly. 

After  Lepsius  had  made  accurate  plans  of  the  city  ruins, 
together  with  the  outlines  of  the  streets  and  private  build- 
ings, the  royal  palace  and  the  temple  of  the  Sun,  and  also  of 


DURING  IDTU  CENTURY  :   EGYPT  675 

many  of  the  rock  tombs  in  the  neighboring  mountains, 
where  Amenophis  IV. 's  contemporaries  rested,  systematic 
excavations  were  not  undertaken  for  many  decades.  In  the 
winter  of  1 887-1 888  some  Arab  peasants  found  on  this  site 
some  cuneiform  tablets  which  contained  the  diplomatic  cor- 
respondence of  the  monarchs  of  Western  Asia  and  of  the 
governors  of  Palestine  with  Pharaoh  Amenophis  IV.  and 
his  father  Amenophis  III.  They  have  for  the  greater  part 
gone  to  the  museums  of  Berlin  and  London,  a  smaller  por- 
tion to  the  museum  at  Gize  (Cairo),  while  some  others  are 
in  the  hands  of  private  persons.  By  the  discovery  of  these 
writings  all  previous  ideas  of  the  affairs  of  nations  and  in- 
ternational relations  in  antiquity  have  been  changed. 

The  finding  of  these  clay  tablets  was  soon  followed  by 
the  discovery  of  the  tomb  of  the  heretic  king  himself,  which 
some  French  scholars  discovered  in  a  side  valley  of  the 
mountain.  In  the  winter  of  1891—92  the  untiring  energy 
of  Flinders  Petrie  led  him  to  this  place,  where  he  com- 
menced new  excavations  in  the  ruins  of  the  town,  especially 
in  the  royal  palace. 

Apart  from  important  architectural  remains,  such  as 
hitherto  unknown  varieties  of  columns,  floors  of  stucco  with 
animal  designs,  which  had  been  produced  in  a  form  remark- 
ably true  to  nature,  showing  indifi^erence  to  the  usual  con- 
ventional style  ;  apart  also  from  remains  of  beautiful  statues 
of  the  king's  family  and  large  inscriptions,  these  excavations 
have  yielded  a  rich  assortment  of  smaller  antiquities,  cor- 
responding to  those  pieces  discovered  at  Gurob,  and  both  in 
material  and  workmanship  belonging  to  the  same  period. 
All  the  rings  and  diff^erent  amulets  of  pearls  and  faience 
show  that  the  end  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  about  1400 
B.  c,  was  the  best  period  of  Egyptian  art,  especially  in  the 
manufacture  of  glass  and  faience  articles.  Never  again  was 
such  a  fine  glaze,  such  a  fresh  blend  of  colors,  reached  as  in 
the  pieces  of  that  period. 


G76  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

In  still  other  respects  these  discoveries  are  of  great  im- 
portance. Even  in  earlier  times  vases  had  come  from 
Egypt  of  the  same  style  as  those  found  at  Mycenae  and 
other  sites  of  the  same  period  of  civilization.  But  just  as 
little  was  known  of  the  place  where  they  had  been  found, 
or  of  the  age  to  which  thev  belonged,  as  was  the  case  with 
similar  Greek  pieces.  Now  there  have  been  found  at 
Gurob  as  well  as  at  El-'Amarna  quantities  of  Mycenean 
earthenware,  the  amount  of  which  far  exceeds  any  of  this 
class  which  have  hitherto  come  from  Egypt.  As  the  date 
of  this  site  can  be  accurately  determined,  we  can  also  fix  the 
date  for  the  flourishing  period  of  Mycenean  art.  We  must 
place  it  at  about  1400-1250  b.  c,  a  date  corresponding  ex- 
actly with  that  which  has  been  assigned  to  the  Egyptian 
scarabaei  and  potsherds  discovered  in  Mycenean  tombs. 


V 


THE  TOMBS   OF  THE    KINGS   OF  ABYDOS   AND   NAQADA  AND  THE 
OLDEST  EGYPTIAN   CEMETERIES 

Until  recently  the  earliest  history  and  civilization  of 
Egypt  was,  so  to  speak,  terra  incognita.  For  the  period 
prior  to  the  Fourth  Dynasty  we  were  dependent,  to  a  great 
extent,  on  the  information  of  Manetho,  with  a  large  mix- 
ture of  mvthical  elements,  on  the  royal  lists  of  kings,  taken 
from  older  sources,  and  on  occasional  passages  in  Egyptian 
texts  of  the  Old  Empire  and  of  later  times.  From  these, 
however,  we  learnt  little  more  than  the  names  and  probable 
order  of  the  kings  who  ruled  from  Menes  down  to  Snofru 
(Sephuris),  the  predecessor  of  Cheops.  Of  the  monuments 
of  this  period  only  the  tomb  pyramid  of  Zoser  and  a  few 
remains  of  mastabas  of  the  Third  Dynasty  were  known. 
In  consequence  of  this  paucitv  of  information,  it  has  often 
happened  that  serious   scholars  have  considered  the  kings 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:   EGYPT  677 

of  this  earliest  period  of  Egyptian  history  as  mythical  per- 
sonages, or  at  least  have  come  to  the  opinion  that  the  lists 
of  the  kings  were  nothing  but  artificial  compilations. 

Little  by  little  we  are  gaining  more  light  upon  this  dark 
period.  The  honor  of  having  opened  up  this  field  of  re- 
search belongs  again  to  the  untiring  Flinders  Petrie.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  year  1895,  with  the  assistance  of  his 
pupil  C)uibell,  he  discovered  many  cemeteries  on  the  western 
bank  of  the  Nile,  between  the  districts  of  Naqada  and 
Ballas,  the  contents  of  which  differed  considerably  from 
those  of  other  graves  in  Egypt,  and  which  he  therefore  re- 
garded not  as  Egyptian,  but  as  belonging  probably  to  a 
Libyan  race.  While  the  bodies  in  the  Egyptian  tombs  — 
with  only  few  exceptions — are  generally  found  lying  on 
their  backs  or  on  their  sides  at  full  length,  these  bodies  were 
found  doubled  up,  the  knees  drawn  up,  the  hands  before  the 
face,  and  Iving  on  the  left  side.  In  some  graves,  which  had 
not  been  ransacked,  some  members  of  the  body  were  found 
broken  from  the  trunk,  or  else  the  whole  body  mutilated. 

The  funereal  objects  were  also  peculiar.  Among  the 
many  pots  placed  with  the  dead,  most  conspicuous  are 
some  red  painted  polished  vases  with  a  black  rim,  light 
brown  pots  with  wavy  handles,  pots  with  red-brown  paint- 
ings (boats,  goats,  ostriches,  spirals,  and  undulating  lines) 
on  a  light  brown  ground  ;  black  bowls  with  ornamentation 
scratched  on  them  and  filled  in  with  white.  Besides  these 
better  specimens  there  were  found  also  some  quite  rough, 
which,  like  the  majority  of  the  others,  had  been  made  not 
on  the  wheel,  but  by  free  hand. 

Especially  numerous  are  stone  vessels  of  various  mate- 
rials (such  as  breccia,  alabaster,  and  diorite),  wrought  with 
wonderful  skill,  and  polished.  The  same  perfection  in  the 
artistic  shaping  of  stone  shows  itself  also  in  the  flint  weapons 
which  have  been  discovered  In  these  graves,  and  which 
surpass  everything  that  is  known  up  to  the  present  in  works 


678  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  this  kind.  A  characteristic  feature  of  these  graves  is  the 
stone  plates  of  green  slate,  mostly  in  the  shape  of  animals 
or  ornamented  with  the  heads  of  birds,  some  of  which  were 
used  in  the  preparation  of  colors  for  dveing  the  eyelashes, 
while  others  were  worn  as  amulets.  No  less  remarkable  are 
the  hairpins  and  combs  made  of  bone,  which  were  orna- 
mented in  a  similar  manner.  Metal  objects  were  com- 
paratively rarely  discovered. 

Cemeteries  like  those  here  described  were  examined  in 
1896  and  1897  either  by  De  Morgan  himself,  or  some  one 
under  his  authoritv,  in  different  places  in  Upper  Egypt; 
the  most  southerly  being  Gebel  Silsile  (according  to  Petrie 
there  exists  one  still  farther  south  at  Kom  Ombo)  and  the 
most  northerlv  near  Kawamil  (to  the  west  of  Menshivej. 
As  onlv  few  objects  of  copper  or  bronze  have  come  to  light 
from  these,  they  have  been  called  by  De  Morgan  "neo- 
lithic "  and  ascribed  to  prehistoric  times.  All  these  tombs 
are  furnished  plainly  and  belong  to  private  persons.  Aside 
from  the  marks  on  pots,  no  inscriptions  have  been  discov- 
ered in  them. 

Even  more  important  was  the  discovery  made  by  the 
French  Egyptologist  Amelineau  in  the  winters  1895-96 
and  1896—97.  He  succeeded  in  finding  five  large  roval 
tombs,  from  which  he  took  many  short  hieroglyphic  in- 
scriptions.^ These  tombs  are  situated  in  the  rubbish 
mounds  known  as  Umm  el-Ga'ab,  near  the  ancient  sacred 
city  of  Abydos,  where  since  the  days  of  Mariette  no  sys- 
tematic excavations  had  been  made.  According  to  the 
gravestones  discovered  there  and  the  seal  inscriptions  from 
the  covers  of  beer  jars,  they  belonged  to  the  kings  Ze, 
Ke-'a    ("high    armed"),    'Eb-sed    ("variegated    tailed"), 

^  Since  the  winter  of  1899  these  excavations  have  been  continued  for  the 
Egypt  Exploration  Fund  by  Flinders  Petrie,  who  not  only  found  a  large 
number  of  antiquities  in  the  roval  tombs  already  examined,  but  also  discov- 
ered several  new  roval  tombs. 


DURING   inr/i   CENTURY:   EGYPT 


G79 


Kha'-sekhmui  (?)  and  Den.  They  are  built  of  sun-dried 
bricks  in  a  rectangular  form.  In  the  tombs  of  the  two  last- 
named  kings  steps  led  down,  just  the  same  as  in  many  of 
the  better  graves  of  private  persons  which  Petrie  had  ex- 
cavated at  Tukh.  The  tombs  of  the  kings  Ze  and  Kha'- 
sekhmui  (?)  showed  complicated  arrangements.  There 
were  situated  around  the  middle  hall,  in  which  probably 
the   body  of  the   ruler  rested,  a   large   number  of  smaller 


The  Temple  of  Seti  I.  at  Abvdos 


chambers,  which,  judging  from  the  gravestones  found  in 
them,  were  used  for  burying  the  earthly  companions  of  the 
king,  his  wives,  dwarfs,  and  favorite  dogs,  or  for  depositing 
the  sepulchral  offerings. 

Besides  the  objects  already  mentioned,  which  were  placed 
in  the  tomb  of  the  dead,  such  as  gravestones  and  clay  stop- 
pers of  earthen  jars,  there  were  also  numerous  large  and 
small  fragments  of  stone  vessels,  fine  ivorv  carvings,  flint 
weapons  of  the  best  workmanship,  copper  utensils,  etc.     In 


G80  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

execution  all  these  pieces  are  so  much  like  the  deposits 
found  in  the  cemeteries  of  Tukh  and  elsewhere  that  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  tombs  of  the  kings  oi  Abydos,  as 
well  as  those  of  Tukh  and  other  places  in  Upper  Kgypt, 
belong  to  the  same  period  of  civilization.  The  tombs  of 
the  kings  at  Abydos,  however,  being  purely  Egyptian  (as 
the  inscriptions  found  in  them  prove),  it  naturally  follows 
that  the  civilization  brought  to  light  through  these  tombs 
is  also  Egyptian,  and  does  not  belong  to  another  people, 
as  Petrie  at  first  assumed. 

It  was,  however,  not  so  easy  to  fix  their  date.  It  is  true 
that  the  names  of  many  kings  were  discovered  (to  those 
mentioned  above  must  be  added  many  others),  but  these 
names,  bv  which  the  ruler  is  designated  as  the  god  Horus, 
are  not  the  same  as  the  birth  names  of  the  monarchs  given 
by  Manetho  and  the  Egyptian  tablet  of  kings.  Fortu- 
nately, three  kings  are  mentioned  by  their  birth  names  on 
two  stone  fragments  found  at  Abydos,  and  in  these  we  re- 
cognize the  kings  Usaphais,  Miebis,  and  Lememses,  men- 
tioned in  the  native  lists,  as  well  as  by  Manetho.  All  three 
belong  to  the  First  Dynasty,  that  is,  to  the  period  before 
the  builders  of  the  great  pyramids,  which  therefore  is  also 
about  the  time  when  the  tombs  of  Abydos  were  built  and 
the  period  to  which  belong  the  other  similar  cemeteries  of 
Upper  Egypt,  a  date  which  has  been  otherwise  confirmed. 

In  the  spring  of  1897  De  Morgan  discovered  a  sixth 
royal  tomb  in  the  neighborhood  of  Naqada,  which  belonged 
to  no  one  less  than  Menes,  whom  Egyptian  tradition  and 
the  Greek  writers  placed  at  the  head  of  all  the  Egyptian 
kings.  In  contrast  to  the  royal  tombs  at  Abydos,  the 
tomb  of  Menes  was  a  separate  building  constructed  entirely 
of  perforated  bricks,  a  great  mastaba,  which  was  ornamented 
on  the  outside  with  niches  in  regular  order.  The  tomb 
contained  five  chambers,  in  the  central  one  of  which  the 
body  of  the  king  was  laid,  while  the  remaining  four  were 


DURING   19TU  CENTURY:   EGYPT 


G81 


intended  to  receive  the  funereal  deposits.  Among  the  latter 
were  discovered  ivory  carvings,  stone  vessels,  flint  weapons, 
earthen  beer  jugs  with  stamped  lids,  etc.,  which  are  in  every 
respect  similar  in  style  to  those  found  in  Abydos,  so  that 
even  by  these  the  correctness  of  the  theory  has  been  again 
confirmed,  that  all  these  tombs  belong  to  the  same  period. 
After  this  oldest   Egyptian  civilization  —  the  civilization 


Royal  Cemetery  at  Abydos 

before  the  erection  of  the  pyramids  —  had  once  been  dis- 
covered, traces  of  it  have  come  to  light  in  other  parts  of 
Upper  Egypt,  for  instance,  through  the  excavations  at 
El-Kab  and  Hierakonpolis.  At  the  last-named  place  Qui- 
bell  discovered  two  slate  palettes,  covered  with  archaic  re- 
liefs which  differ  essentially  from  those  of  the  Old  Empire. 
Palettes  similar  to  these  had  been  found  at  Abydos  and 
classed  by  Steindorff  as  belonging  to  the  earliest  Egyptian 
art. 


G82  EXPLORATIONS   IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

The  more  we  know  of  this  oldest  civiHzation,  its  arts  and 
worlcs,  the  more  plainly  we  see  that  it  could  not  have  ended 
with  the  beginning  of  the  Old  Empire,  —  in  other  words, 
with  the  Fourth  Dynasty.  As  is  most  natural,  in  the  province 
the  method  of  burial  remained  the  same,  even  afterwards, 
when  at  the  capital  and  in  the  cemeteries  of  Memphis  new 
forms  had  been  adopted  ;  and  in  the  same  manner  in  Upper 
Egypt  during  the  Old  Empire,  and  even  far  into  the  Middle 
Empire,  the  old  forms  of  vessels  and  other  objects  were 
still  in  use  at  a  time  when  in  other  places  in  the  Nile  valley 
new  and  more  modern  ideas  had  supplanted  them. 


VI 


THEBES 

While  onlv  a  few  traces  remain  of  the  temples  of  Mem- 
phis, the  northern  capital  of  the  Egyptian  empire,  most  of 
the  great  sanctuaries  of  the  southern  residence,  the  hundred- 
gated  Thebes,  are  in  a  remarkablv  fine  state  of  preservation, 
namely,  on  the  east  bank  the  temples  of  Luxor  and  Karnak, 
on  the  west  bank  the  temple  group  of  Medinet  Habu,  the 
small  Ptolemaic  temple  of  Der  el-Medine,  and  the  terrace 
temple  of  Der  el-Bahri.  And  even  where  great  damage 
has  been  done,  as  at  the  temple  of  Mut  in  Karnak,  the 
Rameseum  or  the  sanctuary  of  Sethos  in  Qurna,  still  there 
remains  enough  to  enable  us  to  form  an  idea  of  their  past 
magnificence,  and  to  restore  with  ease  what  has  disap- 
peared. 

Manv  of  the  temples  were  partly  covered  with  rubbish. 
In  the  courts  of  the  temple  of  Luxor  even  modern  houses 
had  been  erected.  To  clear  away  this  debris  was  one  of  the 
tasks  which  the  authorities  in  charge  of  the  Egyptian  anti- 
quities had  to  perform.  The  temple  of  Luxor  was  cleared 
in  the  years  1885-93,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  portion, 


50 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   EGYPT 


683 


which  is  occupied  by  an  Arab  mosque,  against  the  moving 
of  which  there  were  strong  religious  scruples.  Then  fol- 
lowed the  unearthing  of  the  great  temple  of  Medinet  Habu, 
already  begun  by  Mariette,  and  at  the  order  of  De  Morgan 
completed  by  Daressy  in  the  years  1894-96.  Since  1896 
the  reconstruction  of  the  great  temple  of  the  empire  at 
Karnak  has  been  taken  in  hand.  The  small  temple  of 
Rameses  III.  has  already  been  opened  up,  and  the  imposing 


General  View  of  the  Temple  of  Luxor 

hypostyle,  the  columns  of  which  threatened  to  fall,  has  been 
restored ;  but  it  will  certainly  take  many  years  before  this 
greatest  of  all  Egyptian  temples  is  thoroughly  cleared  of 
rubbish  and  secured  from  further  destruction.  The  great 
service  which  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund  has  done  through 
its  agent  Professor  Naville,  in  clearing  and  securing  the 
temples  of  Der  el-Bahri,  has  already  been  mentioned. 

Besides  these  more  or  less  entirely  preserved  sanctuaries, 
for  the  preservation  of  which  much  has  been  done  in  recent 


684  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

times,  there  were  a  number  of  other  Theban  temples  which, 
with  the  exception  of  unimportant  remains,  have  vanished 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.  These  are  the  greater  and 
smaller  memorial  temples  erected  on  the  west  bank  between 
Medinet  Habu  and  Ourna,  the  centre  of  which  was  formed 
by  the  comparativelv  well  preserved  Rameseum.  There 
lay  in  the  neighborhood  of  Medinet  Habu,  the  sanctuary 
of  Amenophis  III.,  the  mighty  doorkeepers  of  which,  the 
so-called  colossi  of  Memnon,  are  still  standing,  while  all 
other  portions  of  the  building  have  fallen  into  ruins.  Then 
we  have,  going  from  south  to  north,  the  sanctuaries  of 
Menephtah,  in  which  the  famous  Israel  stele  was  discov- 
ered ;  of  Queen  Tewosret  (the  wife  of  the  ephemerical 
king  Si-Ptah)  ;  of  Thothmes  IV.;  of  Prince  Wezmose  ; 
of  Amenophis  II. ;  of  King  Si-Ptah,  and  of  Thothmes  III. 
All  these  were  thoroughly  examined,  and  some  for  the 
first  time  discovered  by  Petrie  during  his  excavations  in 
1896.  Spiegelberg  also  recognized  here,  though  existing 
only  in  unimportant  remains,  a  sepulchral  temple  of  Amen- 
ophis I. 

The  royal  tombs  ot  the  Eleventh,  Thirteenth,  and  Sev- 
enteenth Dynasties,  which  consisted  of  massive  brick  pyra- 
mids, and  which  stood  on  the  desert  to  the  north  of  Qurna, 
are  quite  destroyed,  and  with  few  exceptions  have  disap- 
peared without  even  leaving  a  trace.  Most  of  these  pyr- 
amids had  already  in  ancient  time  been  broken  into  and 
robbed  of  their  valuable  contents,  as,  e.g.,  the  tombs  of  kings 
Kemose  and  Amosis  as  well  as  that  of  Queen  Ahhotep. 
Yet  their  treasures  were  curiouslv  preserved  for  us  by  acci- 
dent. In  the  year  i  860  some  fellaheen  discovered  the  coffin 
of  Ahhotep  hidden  in  the  sand,  in  which  lay  not  only  the 
mummy  of  the  queen  but  a  great  quantity  of  valuable  wea- 
pons and  ornaments,  which,  according  to  the  inscriptions 
on  them,  belonged  to  the  Pharaoh  mentioned  and  to  Queen 
Ahhotep,  and  doubtless  came  from  their  tombs.     How  this 


Stele  of  Menephtah  in  Black  Syenite  (mentioning  Israel) 


DURING  19111   CENTURY:   EGYPT  685 

coffin  together  with  its  treasures  came  to  be  in  the  place 
where  it  was  discovered  remains  a  mystery.  It  is  possible 
that  some  thieves  had  broken  into  the  royal  tombs,  and 
then  secreted  their  bootv  until  such  time  as  they  could  carry 
it  away  at  their  leisure.  But  before  this  happened,  they 
were  probably  discovered,  and  executed  ;  and  with  them 
was  buried  the  secret  of  its  hiding-place  until  it  was  recently 
discovered.  Mariette  seized  the  objects  and  had  them 
sent  to  the  Cairo  Museum,  where  they  have  become  one 
of  the  interesting  exhibits. 

A  systematic  excavation  of  the  cemeteries  of  Qurna  and 
Drah  Abu'l-Nagga,  in  which  besides  the  pyramids  of  the 
kings  are  also  a  number  of  tombs  of  private  people  erected 
since  the  close  of  the  Old  Empire,  has  up  to  the  present 
not  been  undertaken.  So  much  the  more,  however,  they 
have  been  ransacked  by  treasure-seekers  supplying  the  vari- 
ous European  museums  with  valuables.  Champollion  paid 
considerable  attention  to  the  rock  tombs  of  Shaikh  'Abd 
el-Qurna,  and  published  their  inscriptions  and  wall  sculp- 
tures. Since  then  they  have  often  been  examined,  recently 
by  Newberry,  who  opened  many  new  tombs  ;  but  the 
valuable  texts  and  sculptures  contained  in  them  have  in  no 
way  yet  been  exhausted.  For  the  history  of  the  politics 
and  civilization  of  the  New  Empire,  especially  that  of  the 
Eighteenth  Dynasty,  they  are  of  the  same  importance  as 
the  mastabas  in  the  cemeteries  of  Memphis  are  for  the 
times  of  the  pyramids. 

Not  far  from  the  mounds  of  Shaikh  *Abd  el-Qurna,  be- 
tween these  and  the  temple  of  Der  el-Bahri,  lies  also  the 
rock  pit  in  which  the  most  famous  of  all  finds  was  made, 
namely,  the  common  graves  of  the  kings  of  the  Eighteenth 
to  the  Twentv-first  Dvnasties.  As  early  as  the  year  1876 
antiquities  were  offered  for  sale  which  showed  clearly  that: 
they  had  been  discovered  in  royal  tombs,  but  all  attempts 
to  find  out  the  whereabouts  of  these  graves  were  frustrated 


686 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


by  the  craftiness  and  silence  of  the  modern  thieves.  It  was 
not  until  the  summer  of  1881  that  Maspero  and  Emil 
Brugsch,  the  curator  of  the  Cairo  Museum,  succeeded  in 
discovering  the  secret  of  their  hiding-place  and  in  bringing 
the  contents  to  the  light  of  day.     Bv  means  of  a  well  nearly 

^'i  feet  deep  a  subterranean 
^      .  passage    was    reached,    ex- 

tending about  25  feet  in 
a  westerly  direction,  and 
then  continuing  for  nearly 
200  feet  toward  the  north, 
and  finally  ending  in  a  large 
chamber. 

These  underground 
rooms  were  filled  with  cof- 
fins and  mummies  and  all 
sorts  of  deposits.  There 
were  found  the  coffins  and 
mummies  of  the  famous 
kings  of  the  Seventeenth 
and  Eighteenth  Dynasties  : 
Sekenyen-Re,  who  drove 
out  the  Hyksos,  and  Amosis,  Queen  Ahmes  Nefertari,  the 
mother  of  the  princes  of  the  New  Empire,  and  her  son 
Amenophis  I.,  Thothmes  I.,  II.,  and  III.  The  Nine- 
teenth Dynasty  was  represented  by  Sethos  and  the  famous 
Rameses  II.  and  Rameses  III.  Besides,  many  princes  and 
princesses  ot  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty  were  found.  To 
these  must  be  added  the  coffins  and  mummies  of  the  Theban 
high  priests,  the  Pinotems,  and  others  who  under  the  last 
Ramesides  had  gained  great  power  in  the  state,  and  finally 
seized  the  Egyptian  throne  themselves. 

Here  then  was  discovered  a  cemetery  such  as  has  never 
been  found  elsewhere  ;  here  the  most  famous  kings  of 
Egyptian  history,  who  had  been  known  to  us  only  through 


Head  from  the  Sarcophagus  of  King 
Rameses  II. 


DUBiya   19  rn   CENT  if  BY:   EGYPT 


687 


their  inscriptions,  arose  and  stood  before  us.  But  how 
did  all  these  bodies  come  into  one  common  grave  ?  That 
this  had  not  been  their  original  tomb  was  very  evident. 
Under  the  Twentieth  Dynasty,  when  the  power  of  the  state 
began  to  fail,  it  was  not  possible  to 
protect  the  resting-places  of  the 
dead  from  thieves.  In  the  differ- 
ent cemeteries  the  tombs  were  plun- 
dered, and  the  graves  of  the  kings, 
which  afforded  rich  spoil,  were 
much  sought  after  by  the  thieves. 
As  it  was  found  impossible  to  over- 
come this  state  of  affairs,  it  was 
thought  advisable  to  carry  the  bod- 
ies of  the  kings  to  a  place  oPsafety. 
So  we  learn,  for  instance,  from  an 
inscription  that  the  body  of  Rame- 
ses  II.  was  removed  from  its  origi- 
nal tomb  to  the  safer  one  of  Seti  I., 
and  when  this  also  was  pronounced 
unsafe,  it  was  transferred  to  the 
tomb  of  Amenophis  I.  Finallv,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Twenty-second 
Dynasty,  it  was  decided  to  burv 
them  together  in  a  rock  cave  which 
had  been  artificially  constructed  at 
Der  el-Bahri,  and  in  this  wav  to 
protect  them  against  further  moles- 
tation. Also  the  bodies  of  the  kings 
and  roval  relatives  of  the  Twentv- 

first  Dynasty  were  buried  here.  Thus  all  the  great  kings 
rested  in  peace,  until  they  were  discovered  bv  the  fellaheen. 
Now  they  have  been  placed  together  with  their  coffins  and 
treasures  in  the  Museum  at  Cairo.  But  it  is  doubtful 
whether  it  will  be  possible  to  preserve  from  destruction  the 


Mummv  of"  Rameses  II. 


688  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

valuable  remains  which  were  unrolled  at  the  wish  of  the 
Khedive  in  1875,  and  to  keep  them  for  posterity. 

Here  must  also  be  mentioned  another  common  grave 
which  was  found  by  Grebaut  in  1881,  close  to  the  lowest 
terrace  of  the  temple  at  Derel-Bahri,  and  from  which  nearly 
one  hundred  and  fifty  mummies  were  brought  to  light. 
Most  of  these  were  found  lying  in  double  coffins,  the  lids 
of  which  were  in  the  form  of  a  mummy.  They  all  belonged 
to  the  priests  of  Amnion  of  Thebes  and  their  relatives,  and 
were  buried  here  in  the  time  of  the  Twenty-second  Dynasty. 
The  coffins  are  for  the  most  part  older,  but  through  chan- 
ging the  names  written  upon  them  they  were  used  for  new- 
bodies.  Here  also  were  found  numerous  deposits  such  as 
sepulchral  figures,  earthen  jars,  papyri,  etc.,  a  perfect  mass  of 
material  for  information  concerning  the  burial  customs  and 
the  history  and  art  of  the  Twenty-second  Dynasty. 

The  tombs  of  the  Pharaohs  of  the  Eighteenth  and 
Twentieth  Dynasties  are  known  to  exist  in  two  lonely 
ravines,  that  branch  off  from  a  valley  of  the  Libyan  moun- 
tains to  the  north  of  Drah  Abu'l-Nagga.  Strabo  knew 
of  forty  royal  tombs  "  worth  seeing  "  which  were  cut  out  of 
the  rock.  The  scholars  attached  to  the  French  expedition 
mentioned  eleven,  to  which  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  dec- 
ade of  the  last  century  fourteen  others  were  added  by  differ- 
ent travellers,  so  that  up  to  recent  times  twenty-five  were 
known.  The  oldest  of  these  was  that  of  Amenophis  HI., 
which  lies  in  the  western  valley;  the  latest  belongs  to  Rameses 
Xn.,  the  last  of  the  Ramesides,  and  is  situated  in  the  east- 
ern valley.  All  these  tombs,  as  has  already  been  stated, 
were  broken  into  and  plundered  in  ancient  times,  and  no- 
where is  there  found  the  mummy  of  a  Pharaoh  in  its  coffin. 
Of  the  forty  tombs  mentioned  by  Strabo  fifteen  remained  un- 
known, and  all  attempts  to  discover  them  had  been  fruitless. 

In  the  year  1898  the  director-general  of  Egyptian  antiqui- 
ties began  again  to  examine  "  the  Valley  of  the  Kings,"  and 


DURING  WTii   CENTURY:   EGYPT  689 

after  a  few  days  a  workman  had  the  good  fortune  to  discover 
a  new  rock  tomb,  which  proved  to  be  that  of  Thothmes 
III.,  the  great  Egyptian  conqueror.  A  long  slanting  pit  led 
over  a  well  down  to  a  hall  supported  by  two  pillars,  from 
which  there  was  a  descent  by  a  stairway  into  a  large  hall 
which  measured  nearly  fifty  by  thirty  feet,  the  roof  of  which 
was  also  supported  by  two  pillars.  Here  stood  the  sand- 
stone sarcophagus,  painted  red,  its  lid  lying  sideways  on  the 
floor.  The  mummy  had  been  taken  out  of  it  thousands  of 
years  ago,  and,  as  we  shall  see  later,  buried  at  another  place. 
Both  halls  were  entirely  covered  with  sculptures  and  inscrip- 
tions of  a  religious  nature,  representing  subjects  the  know- 
ledge of  which  according  to  Egyptian  belief  was  necessary 
for  the  dead  in  the  next  world. 

Shortly  after  this  important  discovery  Loret  found  the 
tomb  of  the  successor  of  Thothmes  III.,  Amenophis  II. 
Its  arrangements  are  similar  to  those  of  the  tomb  just  de- 
scribed. Here  also,  through  a  slanting  passage,  a  small  hall 
was  reached,  from  which  a  stairway  led  to  a  larger  one  sup- 
ported by  six  columns,  at  the  back  of  which  was  a  small  crypt. 
Here  stood  the  sandstone  sarcophagus,  also  painted  red, 
and  without  a  lid,  which  contained  the  mummy  of  Ameno- 
phis II.,  covered  with  flowers,  the  first  royal  mummy  dis- 
covered in  this  rock  valley  which  had  not  been  displaced. 
But  this  was  not  the  greatest  surprise  which  this  tomb  of- 
fered its  fortunate  discoverer.  To  the  right  and  left  of  the 
great  hall  of  columns  were  two  chambers,  in  both  of  which 
all  sorts  of  sacrificial  offerings  were  piled  up,  jugs,  embalmed 
pieces  of  meat,  and  bundles  of  cloth.  In  the  room  to  the 
right  were  also  found,  besides  a  number  of  sepulchral  fig- 
ures, which  had  been  taken  out  of  their  wooden  coffins,  a 
woman,  a  boy  of  about  fifteen  years,  and  a  man.  The  other 
chamber,  which  was  enclosed  by  a  wall,  contained  quite  a 
storehouse  of  royal  mummies.  Here  rested,  mostly  in  cof- 
fins not  their  own,  the  mortal  remains  of  Thothmes   IV., 


690  EXPLORATIONS   IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

Amenophis  III.,  Merenptah,  the  son  of  Rameses  II.,  Seti 
II.,  Si-Ptah,  and  Rameses  V.,  as  well  as  three  other  mon- 
archs,  whose  names  cannot  be  ascertained.  It  is  plain  that 
this  was  a  hiding-place,  similar  to  that  at  Der  el-Bahri,  in 
which  the  royal  mummies  had  been  placed  in  order  to  pro- 
tect them  against  violation  bv  thieves. 

In  the  year  1899  Loret  discovered  two  more  rock  tombs 
in  the  "Valley  of  the  Kings,"  so  that  altogether  twentv- 
nine  royal  tombs  are  now  known.  One  of  them  belongs  to 
Thothmes  I.,  the  founder  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  and  is 
only  of  very  small  dimensions,  being  together  with  its  two 
chambers  the  smallest  of  the  rock  tombs  there  situated. 
But  it  is  the  oldest  of  the  tombs  built  in  this  locality. 

Amenophis  I.,  predecessor  of  Thothmes  I.,  had  his  pyra- 
midal tomb  built  on  the  border  of  the  desert,  but  the  new 
Pharaoh  was  the  first  to  choose  the  quiet  valley  in  the  de- 
sert as  his  resting-place,  and  other  Pharaohs  followed  his 
example  for  centuries.  In  the  second  of  the  tombs,  dis- 
covered in  1899,  no  king  had  been  buried,  but  a  dignitary, 
a  certain  Meiherp-Re,  the  fan-bearer  probably  of  one  of  the 
princes  of  the  Twentieth  Dynasty.  This  grave  is  of  par- 
ticular interest  owing  to  the  rich  and  peculiar  funereal  de- 
posits found  in  it,  among  other  things  a  bier,  the  like  of 
which  has  never  been  found  in  any  other  tomb.  It  consists 
of  a  quadrangular  wooden  frame  overspread  with  a  thick 
rush  mat,  over  which  were  stretched  three  layers  of  linen 
with  a  life-size  figure  of  the  god  of  death,  Osiris,  drawn  upon 
the  outer  layer. 

Only  the  most  important  discoveries  in  Egypt  have  been 
treated  in  this  sketch.  Many  points  have  only  been  super- 
ficially touched  upon,  and  others  have  been  passed  over 
entirely.  More,  considerably  more,  still  remains  hidden, 
waiting  for  the  fortunate  discoverer  ;  and  the  day  is  still  far 
remote  when  the  cry  of"  nothing  new  from  Africa  "  will  be 
heard  by  the  civilized  world. 


EXPLORATIONS    IN    ARABIA 


y^Y. 


EXPLORATIONS    IN    ARABIA 


BY    PROFESSOR    FRITZ    HOMMEL,    PH.    D. 


I 


We   can   form   a   true  idea   of  the   size   of  the  Arabian 
peninsula   only   by   comparing  it  with   other   lands.     The 

small  country  of  Palestine  contains 
about  10,000  square  miles,  and  cov- 
ers  an  area  as   large  as  the  states 
of  New  Jersey  and  Delaware  com- 
bined ;      Belgium     nearly     10,500 
square    miles  ;    while   Arabia   con- 
tains   over    800,000,   and   is    three 
times  as  large  as  the  state  of  Texas, 
or  over  one  fourth  the  size  of  the 
United    States    of    America    with 
Pennsylvania     added.       In     other 
words,  it  is  nearly  as  large  as  Brit- 
ish  India   (excluding  Burma);    or 
about    as    large   as   the    European 
countries  of  France,  Belgium,  Hol- 
land, Germany,  Switzerland,  Italy, 
Austria-Hungary,  Servia,  Rouma- 
nia,  and  Bulgaria,  all  combined. 
Considering  the  inadequate  facilities    for   transportation, 
which  are  the  same  in  Arabia  to-day  as  in  ancient  times, 
we  can  fully  understand,  in  view  of  such  enormous  extent 
of  territory,  the  statements    of  the    ancient   classic  writers, 
that  the  caravans  of  the  ancient  Mineans,  bearing  frankin- 
cense and  other  merchandise,  required   fully  seventy  days 
51 


Native  of  S.W.  Arabia 


694  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

for  the  journey  from  South  Arabia  to  the  Gulf  of  Akabah, 
while  they  spent  forty  days  on  the  way  troni  Hadhramot 
(or  the  Frankincense  Country)  to  Gerrha,  opposite  Saniak 
or  Dilmun  —  one  of  the  Bahrain  Islands. 

Presupposing  a  general  knowledge  of  the  geographical 
position  of  Arabia  ^  I  may  in  reference  to  its  physical  fea- 
tures confine  myself  to  a  few  brief  remarks.  In  no  other 
country  on  the  earth  are  found  such  contrasts  as  here  in 
Arabia.  Onehalf  of  its  vast  territory  is  composed  of  sandy 
deserts,  —  not,  of  course,  entirely  destitute  of  vegetation, — 
affording,  especially  after  the  spring  rains,  the  roving  Bedou- 
ins a  meagre  subsistence  for  their  camels,  but  which  has 
always  proved  unfit  for  any  permanent  settlement.  Then 
again,  of  greater  or  less  extent,  we  find  smiling  oases  studded 
with  palms,  extensive  fertile  highlands  and  pastures,  above 
all  the  famous  horse-breeding  country  of  Nejd  (the"  High- 
land "  proper),  tropical  districts  on  the  coast  of  the  Red 
Sea,  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  the  Persian  Gulf;  and  finally 
the  wildly  picturesque  mountain  regions  with  their  long 
ranges  of  peaks,  which  in  the  mountains  of  'Oman  (Jebel 
Akhdhar,  more  than  10,000  feet  high)  and  especially  in  the 
Alpine  region  of  Yemen  are  of  truly  imposing  height,  extent, 
and  beautv.  Here,  and  still  more  in  the  central  part  of 
South  Arabia,  the  ancient  Hadhramot,  not  far  from  the 
coast  were  the  Frankincense  Terraces  ;  and  not  far  from 
them  the  land  of  the  myrrh  and  of  various  spices  and 
perfumes ;  while  at  the  present  day,  in  the  western  part  of 
Yemen,  especially  in  the  district  of  Yafi'a,  east  of  Yemen 
proper,  the  delicious  Mocha  coffee  is  produced,  so  that  the 
name  Arabia  Felix,  or  "Arabia  the  Happy,"  is  still,  to  a 
certain  extent,  justified. 

We  may  speak  even  of  a  river  system  in  this  sun-parched 
land,  properly  embracing  the  region  of  the  so-called  wadis, 
or  river  beds,  which  in  midsummer  are  entirely  dry.      Not 

^  For  fuller  information  see  the  map  of  Arabia  at  the  end  of  the  book. 


DURING  lO-rn  CENTURY:   ARABIA  695 

to  mention  the  Euphrates,  which  always  contains  water,  and 
which  forms  the  northeast  boundary  of  the  peninsula,  there 
are  several  large  clearly  recognizable  wadis  in  Arabia.  Of 
these  two  in  particular  traverse  almost  the  entire  width  of 
the  land,  which  are  more  or  less  traceable  to  the  Euphra- 
tes and  the  Persian  Gulf,  while  during  and  shortly  after  the 
rainy  season  through  some  parts  of  their  channels  real  rivers 
flow.     Where,  farther  on,  they  are  lost  in  the  sand  of  the 


Desert  Landscape  in  South  Arabia 

desert,  a  comparatively  luxuriant  vegetation  still  marks  their 
existence  almost  to  the  points  where  they  formerly  emptied 
into  the  Euphrates  and  the  sea.  We  may  safely  assume 
that  in  ancient  times  they  carried  more  water  than  they  do 
at  the  present  day.  Of  the  two  most  noted  ones  the  Wadi 
er-Rumma  starts  in  the  vicinity  of  Khaibar,  making  a  wide 
circuit  around  the  mountain  group  of  Shammar  (Aja  and 
Selma),  while  farther  to  the  east  toward  the  Euphrates  it  is 
lost  in  the  sand.     The  Wadi  ed-Dawasir  (plural  of  Dosar), 


696 


EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 


rising  south  of  Mecca,  also  runs  eastward,  then,  encircHng 
the  rich  mining  region  of  Yemama,  turns  in  the  direction 
of  Bahrain,  the  ancient  "Sea-country"  of  the  Babylonians. 
Besides  these  two  large  wadis  of  Central  Arabia,  there  are 
several  smaller  ones,  such  as  the  Jof  (meaning"  valley  ")  in 
North  Arabia,  also  called  the  Wadi  Sirhan,  which  rises  east 
of  the  Jordan,  first  taking  a  southeasterly,  then  an  easterly 


The  Oasis  of  Jof  in  Northern  Arabia 

direction.  It  is  probable  that  it  likewise  formerly  emptied 
into  the  Euphrates.  There  is  also  in  South  i\rabia  (in  the 
ancient  country  of  the  Mineans)  a  Jof,  or  the  Wadi  Kharid, 
which  perhaps  (its  eastern  course  being  still  unexplored) 
is  continued  in  the  great  wadi  of  Hadhramot,  the  latter 
emptying  into  the  Indian  Ocean.  We  mention  finally  the 
Wadi  Hamdh  in  Northwest  Arabia,  which  was  more  defi- 
nitely located  by  the  Englishman  Doughty. 

Only  a  few  stretches  of  coast,  and  in  the  southwest  only 
the  country  as  far  as  San'a   belong  to   the  Turks,  while  the 


DURING  19rn  CENTURY:   ARABIA  697 

whole  of  the  interior  is  the  stamping  ground  of  the  Bedouin 
tribes,  as  of  old  almost  constantly  fighting  among  them- 
selves. This  is  the  reason  why  Arabia  is  mostly  unexplored, 
and  why,  moreover,  the  question  of  excavating  the  sites  of 
castles,  towns,  and  temples,  once  of  political  and  religious  im- 
portance, has  never  as  yet  been  raised,  although  the  ruins 
upon  the  site  of  Marib,  the  ancient  capital  of  Saba  ( Sheba),  for 
instance,  would  doubtless  yield  just  as  rich  results  as  anv  in 
Southern  Babylonia.  The  mere  possibility  of  undertaking 
such  excavations  has  hitherto  been  precluded  by  the  condi- 
tions prevailing  in  that  country,  which  unfortunately  will 
remain  the  same  for  an  indefinite  period  of  time  to  come. 
But  the  various  exploring  expeditions  since  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  conducted  mostly  by  individual  men  ot 
courage  and  energy,  not  only  produced  rich  geographical 
results,  but  also  from  time  to  time  were  the  means  of  dis- 
covering, above  ground,  very  important  inscriptions,  often 
copied  at  great  risk.  These  proved  especially  interesting 
and  valuable  for  the  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Truly  Arabia  is  one  of  the  so-called  "  Bible  lands,"  among 
which  it  occupies  at  present  even  a  far  more  important 
position  than  we  ventured  to  imagine  a  decade  ago. 

A  complete  and  exhaustive  account  of  the  exploration  of 
the  "  Brown  Continent,"  /'.  e.,  Arabia,  belongs  more  to  the 
province  of  geography  and  ethnology,  particularly  of  de- 
scriptive geography.  In  the  following  pages,  we  will  con- 
sider foremost  those  travels  that  made  us  more  familiar  with 
ancient  Arabia,  and  furnished  new  material  for  its  reconstruc- 
tion and  for  the  understanding  of  its  most  interesting  history, 
as  well  as  its  peculiar  conditions  with  reference  to  religion 
and  civilization.  These  materials  consist  of  inscriptions 
and  monuments,  of  which  especially  South  Arabia  has  thus 
far  yielded  many.  But  modern  Arabia  too,  the  country 
and  people  of  the  present  day,  is  of  real  importance  for  the 
history  of  the  Semitic  race,  though  perhaps  overestimated  by 


698 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


Head  from  Minean  Tombstone 


some  scholars.  In  no  other  country  have  old  manners  and 
customs  been  so  firmly  retained  as  among  the  Semites  in 
Western  Asia,  and  here  again  most  of  all  in  Arabia;  so  that 

a  more  exact  knowledge  of 
those  customs  often  fur- 
nishes an  instructive  com- 
mentary upon  the  life  of  past 
ages,  as  we  see  it  in  the  Bible 
and  in  other  ancient  records. 
Of  course  work  in  this  field 
requires  such  a  faculty  of 
keen  observation  as  not 
every  traveler  possesses ;  still 
books  of  travel  like  those 
of  Burckhardt  and  Doughty 
prove  that,  even  without  the 
results  gained  from  inscrip- 
tions, a  tour  into  Central  Arabia  may  be  exceedingly  in- 
structive and  profitable  to  the  Orientalist,  and  most  of  all  to 
the  student  of  the  Bible.  But  yet  these  works  only  furnish 
information  of  a  more  general  character,  however  valuable 
it  may  be,  often  giving  only  interesting  analogies  sometimes 
leading  to  wrong  conclusions  {e.g.,  those  of  Robertson  Smith 
concerning  gyna?ocracy  among  the  Semites).  Such  evi- 
dence is  not  to  be  compared  with  that  which  comes  directly 
from  an  antiquity  contemporaneous  with  the  Bible,  like  the 
evidence  gained  from  inscriptions  or  statuettes,  votive  tab- 
lets, small  works  of  art,  old  utensils,  etc.,  or  even  from  the 
ruins  of  whole  castles  and  temples.  A  single  line  of  an 
inscription  often  sheds  more  light  on  an  expression  in  the 
Old  Testament  than  descriptions,  however  numerous  and 
exact,  of  conditions  existing  at  the  present  day. 

As  for  the  exploring  expeditions  to  Arabia  undertaken 
bv  Europeans  since  the  year  1763,  all  that  was  done  in 
that  field  up  to   1 846  was  presented  with  great  care  and, 


DURING   lOTii   CENTURY:   ARABIA  699 

considering  the  time,  with  admirable  discrimination  in  Karl 
Ritter's  colossal  work,  "  Geography  of  Asia." '  Ritter 
has  also  incorporated  the  statements  of  the  ancient  classic 
writers  (Agatharchides,  Eratosthenes,  Strabo,  Pliny,  the 
author  o^ Periplus  Maris  Erythraei,  and  Ptolemy)  and  of  the 
Arabian  geographers,  so  far  as  they  were  accessible  to  him. 
Since  Hamdani's  "Arabian  Peninsula,"  Bekri's  and  Yaqiat's 
geographical  dictionaries,  and  other  such  works  are  accessi- 
l3le  in  good  editions  ;  since  also  the  extremely  valuable  data 
found  in  the  Assyrian  royal  inscriptions,  which  at  the  same 
time  enable  us  to  understand  the  Biblical  references  more 
fully  than  was  before  possible,  and  since  the  South  Arabian 
inscriptions  have  been  added  to  these,  of  course  such  a  work 
as  Ritter's  would  at  the  present  day  have  an  entirely  differ- 
ent aspect,  regardless  of  all  the  cartographical  achievements 
of  the  expeditions  made  since  1847.  Nevertheless  Ritter's 
"  Arabia "  is  even  now  an  indispensable  work,  a  shining 
memorial  of  the  diligence  of  German  scholars  in  those 
decades  and  especially  of  the  as  yet  unequalled  Karl  Ritter, 
who  found  a  rival  and  successor  worthy  of  himself  only 
in  the  late  Heinrich  Kiepert,  the  indefatigable  cartographer 
and  learned  author  of  the  "  Compendium  of  Ancient 
Geography.  "  '^ 

In  his  excellent  work  "  Arabia  and  the  Arabs  for  a  Cen- 
tury, a  Geographical  and  Historical  Sketch,"  ^  Albrecht 
Zehme,  purposely  excluding  the  ancient  records,  has  in  a 
clear  and  attractive  style  reedited  what  Ritter  had  gathered, 
and  has  continued  to  record  the  researches  to  the  year  1874. 
For  a  good  and  concise  account  of  the  most  important 
results  of  explorations  from   the  time  of  Carsten  Niebuhr, 

^  Die  Erdkunde  zwn  Asien,  comp.  the  eighth  double  volume,  treating  of 
Arabia,  or  vols.  xii.  and  xiii.  of  his  collected  works. 

-   Lehrhuch  der  alten  Geographic,  Berlin,   1878. 

^  Arabien  und  die  Araber  seit  hu?idcrt  Jahren,  eine  geogr aphis che  and 
geschichtliche  Skizze,  octavo,  407  pp.,  Halle,  1875. 


700  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

1763,  to  that  of  Halevy's  and  Heinrich  von  Maltzan's 
travels,  we  most  heartily  recommend  the  first  318  pages  ^ 
of  Zehme's  work,  which  proceeds,  however,  upon  a  geo- 
graphical rather  than  upon  a  chronological  basis. 

In  the  following  let  us  proceed  to  give  briefly  our  own 
account  of  the  work  done  during  the  same  period,  differing, 
however,  from  Zehme's  in  being  arranged  in  chronological 
order  and  with  special  reference  to  that  which  throws  light 
upon  the  Old  Testament. 

The  scientific  exploration  of  Arabia  began  with  the  ex- 
pedition, in  1761-64,  ot  the  famous  scholar  Carsten  Niebuhr, 
which  was  undertaken  according  to  the  desire  and  at  the 
cost  of  the  Danish  government.  With  a  number  of  fol- 
lowers, among  them  the  botanist  Forskal,  all  of  whom,  how- 
ever, died  on  the  way,  Niebuhr  travelled  especially  in  South 
Arabia  (Feb.  to  Aug.,  1763),  In  two  publications"  he  gave 
the  first  remarkably  exact  and  scientific  account  of  the  coun- 
try. His  work  is  not  yet  obsolete  ;  even  at  present  it  is  a 
real  pleasure  to  read  it,  and  the  accompanying  map  of  all 
the  southwest  territory  of  Yemen  as  far  inland  as  San'a 
was  prepared  with  such  extraordinary  care  that  it  has  been 
hardly  improved  by  the  later  travels  of  others.  We  should 
also  mention  especially  his  travels  along  the  coast  of  Hijaz 
and  of  South  Arabia  as  far  as  the  Sakhalitic  Gulf,^  where  he 
gathered  interesting  information  about  Hadhramot,  or  the 
"Frankincense  Country"  mentioned  in  the  table  of  nations 
(Gen.  chap.  lo)."* 

^  Pp.  3 1 9  to  end  give  a  resume  of  the  political  history  of  Arabia  from  the 
rise  of  Wahhabism  (about  1750)  to  1874.  Unfortunately  the  book  has  no 
index,  so  that  much  time  is  wasted  in  finding  the  proper  names. 

^  Reisebeschreibung  nach  Arabien,  z\oh.,  diwi.  Beschreibung  von  Arabieti, 
I  vol.,  the  latter  published  also  in  French. 

^  The  large  bay  between  Ras  Fartak  and  Mirbat  (comp.  the  accompanying 
map). — The  Editor. 

*  In  this  connection  we  ought  to  remark  that  the  name  Sakhalitic  Gulf  can 
hardly   be  derived  from  such  a  general   term  as  the  Arabic  sahil,  "coast  " 


DURING   19TH   CENTURY:   ARABIA 


701 


Next  in  the  order  of  time  comes  the  English  agent 
Reinaud,  who  in  1799  made  a  tour  from  ^atif  on  the  eastern 
coast  to  Der'iya,  in  the  interior  of  Yemama,  then  the  capital 
of  the  newly  established  dominion  of  the  Wahhabites.  A 
very  brief  report  of  this  journey,  undertaken  by  order  of  the 
East   India  Company,  and  which  was   therefore  merely  for 


Aden 


commercial  purposes,  was  given  bv  Seetzen  (see  below)  in 
1805/  Reinaud,  while  fifteen  days  on  the  way  to  Der'iya, 
remained  there  only  eight  days.  Though  contributing  no- 
thing to  science  through  this  journey,  he  was  the  first  to 
visit  that  interesting  region,  and  was  also  the  only  European 
who  saw  the  kingdom  of  the  Wahhabites  at  its  height,  and 

(whence  saivahil,  "inhabitants  of  the  coast,"  the  name  ot"  the  Suaheli  in 
Northeast  Africa),  but  rather  from  the  old  word  for  "frankincense," 
Hebrew  j/zfy^/^iF/^/Zz  (Exod.  30:  34  ),  Ethiopic /^i/^z//.  Probably  also  ^/^//rr 
(^Shehr^,  the  name  for  the  coast  of  the  "Frankincense  Country,"  is  but  a 
variant  of  this  word  for  "  frankincense." 
^  In  Zach's  Monatliche  CorresponJenz. 


702  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

the  famous  ruler  'Abd  ul-'Aziz,  who  was  then  sixty  ^  years 
old. 

Near  the  end  of  the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury the  Russian  college  assessor  Ulrich  Jasper  Seetzen,  a 
native  of  Oldenburg,  in  the  guise  of  a  dervish  visited  Mecca 
and  the  district  called  Hijaz.  Soon  afterward  (1810-11),  as 
the  first  and  for  a  long  time  the  only  European  traveller,  he 
made  the  interesting  overland  journey  from  Aden  to  San'a, 
at  which  time  he  copied  the  first  South  Arabian  inscriptions, 
in  Tzafar,"  the  ancient  capital  of  Himyar,  three  hours  south 
of  Yerim.  Niebuhr  had  already  heard  of  such  inscriptions, 
but  his  efforts  to  find  them  had  been  unsuccessful.  Seetzen's 
copies  were  published  at  once,^  but  failed  to  attract  the  at- 
tention of  the  Orientalists ;  moreover,  with  a  single  excep- 
tion, the  copies  were  so  poor  that  without  other  materials 
nothing  could  have  been  done  with  them.  Soon  afterward 
Seetzen  disappeared.  Probably  he  suffered  a  premature 
death  in  Yemen  either  by  murder  or  from  the  treacherous 
tropical  fever ;  but  the  fragments  of  his  diarv,^  which  had 
been  sent  to  Europe  before  his  death,  were  published  nearly 
half  a  century  later,  1854-59.  Unfortunately  this  diary 
does  not  contain  his  visit  to  Mecca  nor  his  travels  in  Yemen. 

We  now  come  to  one  of  the  most  distinguished  explorers 
of  Arabia,  Johann  Ludwig  Burckhardt,  a  Swiss,  who  in 
I  814-16,  under  English  auspices,  went  out  to   the  coast  of 

^  Apparently  a  mistake.  'Abd  ul-'Aziz  was  born  in  1721,  and  was  mur- 
dered October  14,  1803.  In  1799  he  was  therefore  78  years  old.  Comp. 
Euting,  Tagebuch  eiiier  Reise  in  Inner- Arabien,  i.,  pp.  159,  seq. — The 
Editor. 

^  Not  to  be  confounded  with  the  Tzafar  in  the  coast  region  of  Hadhramot 
(Sapphar  of  Ptolemy),  which  incorrectly  has  been  regarded  as  identical  with 
Sephar,  a  mountain  mentioned  in  Gen.   10  :  30. 

^  In  the  second  volume  of"  the  Fundgruben  des  Orients,  Vienna,  i  8 1 1 . 

^  Reisen  durch  Syrien,  Palastina,  Phonizien,  die  Tran$jor dan-Lander, 
Arabia  Petraa  und  Unter-Agypten,  4  vols.,  edited  by  Kruse,  Hinrichs, 
Miiller,  and  Fleischer. 


DURING  19™   CENTURY:   ARABIA  703 

Hijaz.  Though  visiting  only  Jidda  and  Yambo',  yet  he 
was  the  first  who,  in  the  guise  of  a  pilgrim,  completed  the 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca  and  Medina,  of  which  he  gave  a  mi- 
nute account  in  his  classic  works,  published  after  his  death, 
"  Travels  in  Arabia"  (2  vols.,  London,  1829)  and  "  Notes 
on  the  Bedouins  and  Wahabvs  "   (2  vols.,  London,  1831). 

In  1 8 19  another  expedition  was  made  to  Eastern  and 
Central  Arabia  by  the  Englishman  Captain  Sadlier,  who 
travelled  from  Oatif^  (Katif)  to  Medina,  whence  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Yambo'  (Yanbo)  on  the  western  coast.  Follow- 
ing in  the  footsteps  of  Ibrahim  Pasha,  the  conqueror  of  the 
Wahhabites,  he  made  the  journey  hastily  and  without  anv 
considerable  scientific  results.  His  diary,  "  Account  of  a 
Journey  from  Katif  to  Yambo,"  was  published  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  Literary  Society  of  Bombay,  vol.  iii." 

As  a  worthy  successor  of  Niebuhr  and  Burckhardt  we 
mention  the  Englishman  Captain  T.  R.  Wellsted,  who  in 
1834-35,  travelling  in  the  service  of  the  English  Coast  Sur- 
vey of  Arabia,  found  opportunity  to  make  various  interest- 
ing excursions  into  the  interior,  the  most  important  being 
to  'Oman  and  to  Wadi  Maifa'at  (Mefa'at)  in  Hadhramot. 
His  "Travels  in  Arabia"  appeared  in  two  volumes  (Lon- 
don, 1838),  and  in  an  excellent  German  translation  (Halle, 
1842)  revised  by  the  Orientalist  Rodiger,  who  added  an 
excursus  "  On  the  Himyaritic  inscriptions  ^  made  known 
by  Lieut.  Wellsted."* 

Charles  J.  Cruttenden,  who  had  travelled  with  Wellsted 
in  South  Arabia,  made  in  1838  an  independent  tour  from 
Mokha  (Mocha)   to  San'a,  in   the  course  of  which  he  suc- 

^   Comp.  Reinaud's  travel  above. 

■^  Comp.,  also,  Ryan,  <' Captain  Sadlier's  Diary,"  Bombay,   1866. 

^  I.e.,  the  two  inscriptions  from  Hisn  el-Ghurab  (  "  Raven  Castle  "  )  on  the 
coast  and  Naqb  el-Hajar  in  Wadi  Maifa'at,  equally  important  linguistically 
and  historically. 

*  Comp.  the  German  translation,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  352—411. 


704  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

ceeded  in  copying  five  more  South  Arabian  inscriptions  in 
San'a.^  The  previous  year  (1837)  he  had  already  made  a 
journey  of  three  days  from  Mirbat  on  the  coast  of  the 
Frankincense  Country  through  the  district  of  Tzafar."  To 
complete  this  series  we  should  add  Wellsted's  important 
"  Report  on  the  Island  of  Socotra  "  in  1835.^  T"he  travels 
of  Wellsted  and  Cruttenden  form  an  epoch  in  the  history 
of  South  Arabian  inscriptions,  to  be  discussed  hereafter  in 
Part  II.  in  connection  with  Rodiger's  and  Gesenius'  funda- 
mental essays  on  their  decipherment. 

A  most  remarkable  journey  was  made  in  1843  ^^'  ^^e 
German  Adolf  von  Wrede,  the  details  of  which,  however, 
were  not  made  public  until  nearlv  thirty  years  later,  when 
his  diary  w^as  published  by  Heinrich  von  Maltzan.^  This 
bold  traveller's  narrative,  which  in  all  chief  points  was  con- 
firmed later  by  information  gained  from  natives,^  reads  like 
a  romance,  giving  for  the  first  time  a  more  vivid  picture  of 
the  principal  valleys  of  this  wonderful  land,  especially  of  the 
rich  and  fertile  Wadi  Do'an.  Von  Wrede  had  the  good 
fortune  also  to  discover  and  copy  an  important  inscription, 
of  five  long  lines,  in  Hadhramot  at  'Obne,  a  place  situated 
in  a  valley  branching  off  from  the  Wadi  Maifa'. 

In  the  same  year,  1843,  the  French  pharmacist  Thomas 
Joseph  Arnaud  made  an  equallv  bold,  though  much  shorter 
journey  from  San'a  to  Marib,'^  which  up  to  the  present  time 
has  been  visited  bv  onlv  three  Europeans  (Arnaud,  Halevy, 

^  His  reports  of  this  tour  are  to  be  found  in  the  Journal  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society  of  London,  vol.  viii.,  pp.  276-289,  and  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Bombay  Geographical  Society,  1838,  pp.  39—55. 

^  Comp.  the  Proceedings  of  the  Bombav  Branch  ot  the  Royal  Asiatic 
Society,   1837. 

^  Comp.  the  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  vol.  iv.,pp.  138— 
166. 

*   Adolf  von  Wrede^  s  Reise  in  Hadhrarnaut,  Braunschweig,  1870. 

^  See  below,  especially  Van  den  Berg's  Hadhramout. 

^  Requiring  about  five  days'  travel. 


DURING  lOTir  CENTURY:  ARABIA 


705 


and  Glaser).  Marib  is  in  the  midst  of  a  rich  mining  region 
and  was  the  capital  of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Saba  (Sheba). 
The  report  of  this  trip  and  of  the  five  days'  sojourn  in 
Marib  was  published  in  1845  ^7  ^^^  Parisian  Orientalist 
Mohl  in  the  Journal  Asiatique.  The  chief  result  of  this 
journey  are  the  description  of  the  remains  of  the  famous 
dam  of  Marib,  and  a  collection  of  fifty-six  mostly  very 
short  inscriptions,  of  which  numbers  4-1 1  were  from  Sirwah, 


Sandstorm  in  the  Wadi  Er-Rajel 

a  ruined  place  west  of  Marib,  the  remainder,  12-56,  from 
Marib  itself. 

We  are  now  taken  to  entirely  different  parts  of  Arabia  by 
the  two  following  explorers.  First  in  order  of  time  is  to  be 
mentioned  the  Swede  Georg  Wallin,  who  in  1845  travelled 
to  Hayil  and  from  there  to  Medina,  while  in  1848  he  went 
from  Muelih  on  the  Red  Sea  to  Tabuk,  Taima,  and  Hayil, 
whence  he  proceeded  by  the  old  northern  caravan  route  to 
the  Euphrates.  This  was  the  first  time  that  North  Arabia 
had  been  traversed  from  west  to  east.  Wallin 's  report,  which 
was  a  model  of  accuracy,  appeared  in  the  Journal    of  the 


706  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Royal  Geographical  Society  of  London,  vols,  xx,  and 
xxiv.  A  number  of  modern  Bedouin  songs,  of  great  lin- 
guistic value,  from  Central  Arabia,  which  he  had  collected 
in  Hayil  (Jebel  Shammar)  and  in  the  Jof,  were  published 
in  the  Journal  of  the  German  Orient  Society/ 

In  1853  the  famous  Englishman  Richard  Burton,  to 
whom  we  owe  the  first  complete  translation  of  the  "  Arabian 
Nights,"  undertook  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  and  Medina,  like 
Burckhardt  disguised  as  a  Mussulman.  His  work,  "  Per- 
sonal Narrative  of  a  Pilgrimage  to  el-Medinah  and  Mecca" 
(3  vols.,  London,  1856),  mav  be  regarded  as  an  important 
supplement  to  .Burckhardt's.  Here  we  may  in  advance 
mention  the  fact  that  Burton  (well  known  also  as  an  African 
explorer)  in  1877  and  '78  again  explored  Arabia.  This 
time  we  find  him  in  the  northwest  portion,  known  from 
the  Bible  as  the  Land  of  Midian.  His  two  expeditions  to 
that  quarter,  made  in  close  succession,  were  described  in 
the  attractive  style  peculiar  to  him  in  the  two  works,  "  The 
Goldmines  of  Midian  and  the  Ruined  Midianite  Cities  " 
(London,  1878)  and  "The  Land  of  Midian  Revisited" 
(2  vols.,  London,  1879). 

Toward  the  end  of  1861,  Jacob  Saphir,  a  Jew  from  Jeru- 
salem, made  an  interesting  tour  to  Yemen,  travelling  from 
Hodaida  to  San'a,  then  via  Shibam  to  Kaukaban  and 
*Amran,  and  finally  via  San'a  to  Aden.  The  account  of 
this  journey  published  in  Hebrew^  was  not  mentioned  by 
Zehme,  D.  H.  Miiller^  being  the  first  to  call  attention  to  it. 
Evidently  this  trip  of  Saphir  served  as  a  guide  for  Halevy,^ 
since  he  learned  from  it  about  the  existence  of  Jewish  com- 
munities in  Yemen,  and  therefore  resolved  that  he  also  would 

^  Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenlandischeti  Geselhchaft,  vols.  v.  and  vi. 
^  Eben  Saphir,  vol.  i.,  Lyck,  1866. 

^  Comp.  his  Bur  gen  und  Schlosser  Siidarabiens  (published  by  the  Academy 
of  Vienna),  pp.  6,  seq. 
*  See  below. 


DURING  191'"  CENTURY:  ARABIA 


707 


travel  as  a  Jerusalemitic  Jew  ;  although  from  San'a  follow- 
ing routes  entirely  different  from  those  followed  by  Saphir. 
D.  H.  Miiller  in  his  above-mentioned  treatise  gave  German 
translations  of  several  extracts  from  Saphir's  memoir,  which 
is  generally  inaccessible  to  European  and  American  readers. 

The  memorable 
second  tour  across 
the  Arabian  pen- 
insula was  made 
in  1862-3  by  the 
Englishman  Wm. 
Gifford  Palgrave/ 
a  Jesuit  father 
who  travelled 
from  the  Dead 
Sea  to  Qatif, 
whence  he  went 
by  sea  to  'Oman. 
Zehme  has  well 
said  in  his  sum- 
mary of  these 
achievemen  t  s : 
while  Wallin  "  re- 
vealed to  us  the 
great  northwest 
territory  between 
the  Sinaitic  penin- 
s  u  1  a,  the  E  u- 
phrates,  Jebel  Shammar  (Hayil),  and  Medina,  thus  con- 
ducting us  to  the  very  portals  of  Nejd  proper  (the  high- 
lands of  Central  Arabia),  Palgrave  for  the  first  time  opened 
these  portals,  traversed  the  whole  of  Central  Arabia,  — 
practically  unknown  before  his  day,  —  reaching   again  the 

1  See  his  book,  "  A  Narrative  of  a  Year's  Journey   through  Central  and 
Eastern  Arabia,"  2  vols.,  London,  1862-63. 


Khoraiba,  South  ot  Azab 


708  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

ocean  billows  on  the  shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf"  The 
haste  with  which  Palgrave  was  dragged  through  the  country 
by  his  guide  (many  parts  being  traversed  only  by  night) 
often  cut  short  his  observations.  So  much  the  more  in- 
teresting are  those  he  made  at  the  places  where  he  remained 
longer.  His  description  ofYemama  and  his  information 
concerning  the  remarkable  Wadi  ed-Dawasir'  are  the  most 
important  results  of  what  was  an  epoch-making  tour,  not- 
withstanding many  opinions  to  the  contrary. 

Many  of  his  statements  have  since  been  verified  bv  the  Ital- 
ian traveller  Guarmani,  Palgrave's  next  successor,  who  went 
from  Jerusalem  by  wav  of  Taima  to  Hayil  and  thence  south- 
ward as  far  as  'Onaiza,'"  while  the  Austrian  traveller  Glaser 
afterward  in  San'a  met  the  very  Arab  who  had  been  Pal- 
grave's guide  to  Yemama,  and  through  him  established  the 
fact  that  the  former^  Jesuit  father  Palgrave  had  really 
visited  all  the  places  where  he  himself  declared  that  he  had 
been. 

After  Wallin's  tour  from  Jebel  Shammar  to  the  Eu- 
phrates and  that  of  Palgrave  from  Nejd  to  the  Persian  Gulf, 
the  only  thing  really  necessary  to  make  our  knowledge  of 
Central  Arabia  in  the  main  complete  was  to  fill  the  gap  be- 
tween these  two.     This  was  done    in    1865   by  the   English 

^  See  above,  pp.  695,  se^. 

^  Comp.  Guarmani's  report  Neged septentrional'xn  the  Bulletin  de  la  Societe 
de  Geographie,  Paris,  1865,  later  published  in  book  form  under  the  title  // 
Neged  Settentrionale,  Jerusalem,  i  866. 

^  It  might  interest  the  reader  to  learn  that  this  remarkable  man,  whose 
work  reads  like  a  charming  romance,  first  served  as  a  Jesuit  missionary  in  Bey- 
rout,  where  he  had  a  great  reputation  on  account  of  his  sermons  delivered  in 
Arabic.  On  the  above-mentioned  journey,  besides  the  Arab  guide  referred 
to,  he  was  accompanied  by  a  certain  Jeraijiri,  the  present  Grasco-Mel- 
chitic  patriarch  of  Damascus,  who  went  with  Palgrave  as  far  as  Qatif  on  the 
Persian  Gulf,  whence  he  returned  via  Baghdad  to  Bevrout.  After  his  expedi- 
tion Palgrave  went  to  Paderborn,  then  left  the  Jesuit  order  and  went  to  Berlin. 
He  died  in  1891,  while  serving  as  English  minister  resident  at  Montevideo. 


DURING  lOTii  CENTURY:   ARABIA  709 

"  Resident  "  in  Bushire,  Colonel  Pelly,  who  journeyed  from 
Quwait  (Koweit)  at  the  northwest  point  of  the  Persian  Gulf, 
due  south  to  Riyadh/  in  the  district  called  Nejd.  Just  be- 
fore reaching  Riyadh  he  made  a  short  detour  to  Sedias, 
while  on  the  return  trip  he  travelled  due  east  via  Hof  hiaf  to 
the  Gulf,  by  a  somewhat  more  northerly  route  than  that 
taken  bv  Palgrave.  Although  in  important  discoveries  his 
tour  cannot  compare  with  those  of  Wallin  and  Palgrave, 
still  with  scientific  precision  he  located  Riyadh,  Hofhuf,  and 
other  places,  and  determined  the  physical  character  of  the 
whole  region  between  Riyadh  and  the  Gulf.  Here  we 
should  mention  the  fact  that  between  Yemama,  with  its  cap- 
ital Riyadh,  and  the  coast  region  of  Bahrain  —  the  ancient 
"  Sea-country  "  of  the  Babylonian  inscriptions  —  lies  a  sandy 
desert  (the  so-called  Dehna)  about  eight  days'  journey  in 
width,  which  Pelly  and  before  him  Palgrave  had  to  cross  on 
their  way. 

In  the  same  year,  1865,  Wetzstein,  at  that  time  Prussian 
consul  at  Damascus,  published"  the  important  information 
which  he  had  gained  from  different  Arabs  concerning  the 
principal  highways  of  Central  and  Northern  Arabia. 

The  names  coming  next  in  order,  those  of  the  Jewish 
Orientalist  Joseph  Halevy  of  Paris,  and  Heinrich  von 
Maltzan,  bring  us  back  to  South  Arabia.  The  former  took 
advantage  of  the  fact  that  in  Yemen  there  are  a  number  of 
Hebrew  communities,  tolerated  by  Islam.  Near  the  end 
of  the  year  1 869,  in  the  guise  of  a  poor  Jew  from  Jerusalem, 
he  undertook  important  explorations  in  South  Arabia,  the 
land  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  around  whose  name  so  many 
legends  cluster.  The  character  which  Halevy  had  assumed 
exposed   him  often    to   unfair  treatment,  but  he   also  was 

•^  See  Felly's  own  report,  "A  Visit  to  the  Wahabee  Capital,"  in  the 
Journal  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  of  London,  vol.  xxxv. 

^  Under  the  title  Nordarabien  unci  die  syriscJie  Wiiste  nacli  den  Angaben  der 
Eingeborenen  in  the  Berliner  Zeitschrift  fiir  allgemeine  Erdkunde,  vol.  xviii. 
52 


710  EXI'LOliAriONS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

thereby  free  from  too  close  a  surveillance,  which  might 
incidentally  have  become  dangerous.  Of  course  the  role 
which  he  had  to  play  quite  often  interfered  with  his  exact 
topographical  survey  of  the  region  and  copying  the  inscrip- 
tions. But  notwithstanding  this  difficulty,  he  brought  back 
with  him  nearly  700  inscriptions  (about  50  of  medium  length, 
the  remainder  consisting  of  only  a  few  words  or  a  few  lines) 
as  the  rich  fruit  of  his  memorable  travels.  He  was  the  first 
and  is  as  yet  the  only  European  to  advance  northward 
as  far  as  Wadi  Nejran  and  to  traverse  the  so-called  South 
Arabian  Jof,  the  ancient  land  of  the  Mineans.  He  was  also 
in  Marib  and  Sirwah  (see  under  Arnaud,  above),  where  he 
could  stay,  however,  only  a  few  hours,  thus  failing  to  gain 
substantial  results.  On  account  of  Halevy's  tour,  the  year 
1870  marks  a  new  epoch  in  the  study  of  the  ancient  history 
of  South  Arabia.  The  report  of  his  travels  appeared  in 
1872.^  In  geography  his  achievements  were  less  important, 
because  at  each  place  the  distinguished  explorer  was  allowed 
to  stay  only  a  short  time.  But  his  collection  of  inscriptions, 
published  also  in  1872,  proved  the  more  valuable  on 
account  of  Halevy's  critical  notes,  which  laid  the  first  real 
foundations  of  Sabean  philology. 

In  1870-71  Heinrich  von  Maltzan^made  a  few  short 
trips  from  Aden  along  the  coast.  The  value  of  the  book 
in  which  he  describes  them  ^  is  much  increased  by  the  great 
variety  of  information  that  he  gathered  in  Aden  from  the 
natives  of  Eastern  Yemen  and  of  Hadhramot,  —  information 
now  largely,  if  not  altogether,  antiquated  in  view  of  the 
much  more  thorough  investigations  of  Count  Landberg^  in 

^  Rapport  sur  une  mission  archeologique  dans  le  Yemen,  in  Journal  Asia- 
tique,  series  6,  vol.  xix.  For  a  fuller  report  see  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de 
Geographic,   1873  ^^  1877  (^Voyage  au  Nedjran). 

^  His  book  on  A.  von  Wrede's  travels,  published  in  1870,  was  mentioned 
above  in  connection  with  the  year  1843. 

^  Reise  nach  Siidarabien,  Braunschweig,   1873  fwith  maps"). 

*   Comp.  his  Arabica,  parts  4  and  5,  Leiden,    1896  and  1898. 


DURING  IQTU  CENTURY :   ARABIA 


711 


the  country  between  Yemen  proper  and  Hadhramot.  Yet 
Maltzan  undoubtedly  has  the  credit  of  having  created  an 
interest  in  Arabian  geography  and  ethnology  in  wide  circles 
and  of  having  himself  given  much  new,  though  not  alwavs 
accurate,  information  on  these  subjects.  It  was  reallv  a  new 
world  that  Maltzan  by  his  accounts  of  Dathina,  Yafi'a, 
Baihan,    etc.,  revealed  to   the  western  world,  though    then 


South  Arabian  Princes 
(^Sons  of  the  Sultan  of  Lahij  ivit/i  tivo  sla'ves  j 

only  seen  as  through  a  glass  darklv.  It  was  first  proved 
by  Glaser's  explorations  that  these  districts  made  up  most 
ot  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Oataban,  which  along  with  Ma'in, 
Saba  (Sheba),  and  Hadhramot  flourished  nearly  a  thousand 
years,  ending  shortly  before  the  birth  of  Christ.  In  his 
book  Maltzan  was  able  also  to  utilize  the  report^  of  a  tour 

^  Comp.  Journal  of  the  Roval  Geographical   Society  of  London,  vol.  xli. 
1871. 


712  EXI'LORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

made  in  1870  by  Captain  Miles  and  Werner  Munzinger, 
who  explored  the  Wadi  Maifa'at^  as  far  as  Habban. 

In  1873  Charles  Millinger  travelled  from  Hodaida  to 
San'a,  the  present  Turkish  capital  of  Yemen,  l^he  report 
of  this  journey,-  which  contained  little  that  was  new,  is 
given  as  the  last  of  Zehme's  extracts  in  his  book  "  Arabia 
and  the  Arabs,"  above  mentioned.  Zehme  continued  his 
valuable  reports  only  to  the  year  1879,  in  the  geographical 
journal  Globus.^  His  lamented  death  occurred  April  29, 
1880,  at  his  home  in  Frankfort  on  the  Oder. 

We  here  mention  briefly  and  in  chronological  order  the 
exploring  expeditions  to  Arabia  from  1876  to  1900:  — 

In  1876-78  Charles  M.  Doughty  made  his  memorable 
tour  to  Medain  Salih  (where  he  discovered  Nabatean,  Lih- 
yanian  or  Tamudian,  Minean  and  so-called  Proto-Arabic 
inscriptions),  to  Jebel  Shammar  (especially  Hayil),  to  the 
Harra  (Volcanic  Region)  of  'Owairidh,  Taima,  Khaibar, 
Boraida,  'Onaiza,  and  Tayif,  to  mention  here  only  the  prin- 
cipal stopping  places  during  these  travels,  which  lasted  for 
two  years."'  The  great  importance  of  Doughty's  narrative 
was  well  set  forth  •'  by  Wellhausen,  —  Aloys  Sprenger,  the 
famous  biographer  of  Mohammed,  having  already  previously 

1  This  is  the  wadi  in  which  in  1898  the  expedition  of  the  Academy  ot 
Vienna,  conducted  by  Count  Landberg,  proceeded  as  far  as  'Azzan.  This 
valley  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  Wadi  Maifa',  which  lies  farther  to 
the  east. 

-  See   Journal    or    the  Royal    Geographical    Society  of  London,  vol.  xliv. 

1874. 

3  Under  the  title  Jus  und  iiber  Arabien,  1-8,  I  876-1  879  ;  nos.  5  and 
8  containing  fuller  accounts  of  Manzoni's  first  two  excursions  in  Yemen, 
no.  7  of  Burton's  exploration  of  Midian  ;  while  the  other  articles  give  in- 
formation of  a  more  general  character. 

*  See  his  "  Travels  in  Arabia  Deserta,"  2  vols.,  Cambridge,  1888.  The 
work  contains  1300  closely  printed  pages. 

^  Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenldndischen  Gesellschaft,  vol.  xlv.,1891, 
pp.   I  72—80. 


DURING  19'n   CENTURY:   ARABIA 


713 


enlarged  ^  upon  the  geographical  significance  of  Doughty's 
work  for  our  knowledge  of  the  region  between  'Onaiza  and 
Tayif.  Doughty  had  lived  nearly  two  years  in  the  tents 
of  the  Arabs  —  not  in  the  lordly  style  warranted  by  his 
means,  but  as  one  of  their  equals,  sharing  their  privations 
and  hardships ;  so  that  his  narrative  is  a  rare  source  of 
knowledge  upon  the  present  manners  and  customs  among 
the  Bedouins  of  Central  Arabia.     And  owing  to  the  con- 


San'a,  Capital  of  Yemen 


servative  character  of  the  Arabs,  it  is  also  a  valuable  objec- 
tive commentarv  upon  numerous  passages  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. The  most  important  geographical  information  in 
Doughty's  work  is  that  concerning  the  Wadi  el-Hamdh 
(running  from  Medina  northwest  and  then  west  to  the  Red 
Sea),  which  he  and  Burton  to  a  certain  extent  discovered 
anew,  and   that   concerning   the    beginning   and    course   of 

^  Zeitschrift    der    Deutsche n    Morgenlandischen    Geselhchaft,    vol.     xlii., 
1888,  pp.  32  1-340. 


714  EXPLORAriONS   I\    BIBLE  LANDS 

Wadi  er-Rumma,  identical  with  the  river  of  Eden  called 
Gihon. 

In  1877-80  Renzo  Manzoni,  grandson  of  the  famous 
writer  of  the  Promessi  Sposi,  made  three  excursions,  the  goal 
and  chief  point  of  interest  of  each  being  San'a,  the  Turkish 
capital  of  Yemen/  a  place  still  rarely  visited  bv  Europeans. 
Manzoni's  work,  which  contains  two  excellent  maps  of  the 
entire  region  between  Aden,  San'a,  and  Hodaida,  is  also  the 
first  of  the  illustrated  books  on  travel  in  Arabia.  The 
woodcuts,  copied  from  photographs,  certainly  give  a  far 
more  vivid  impression  of  the  nature  of  Arabia — still  in 
many  respects  so  strange  to  us  —  than  the  best  verbal  de- 
scriptions. Through  Manzoni's  description  and  cuts  we  ob- 
tain an  especially  good  idea  of  San'a  (nearly  6600  ft.  above 
the  sea),  particularly  as  an  accurate  plan  of  the  city  is  added, 
the  first  of  its  kind  ever  published. 

Burton's  two  works  on  Midian^  have  already  been  men- 
tioned above  in  connection  with  his  pilgrimage  to  Mecca 
(see  p.  706).  An  important  geographical  supplement,  which 
appeared  in  1879,  may  here  briefly  be  referred  to.^ 

Lord  Byron's  granddaughter  Lady  Anne  Blunt  wrote  an 
interesting  account  of  a  tour  made  by  her  in  company  with 
her  husband.  Sir  Wilfred  Scawen  Blunt,  lasting  from  De- 
cember, 1878,  to  the  end  of  February,  1879,  and  extending 
from  Damascus  through  the  North  Arabian  J5f  and  through 
the    Nefud   desert   to   Hayil,  then   along  the  pilgrim   road 

^  £/  Temen,  Tre  Anni  tieW  Arabia  Felice,  Escursioni  fatte  dal  Sett. 
18/"/  al  Marzo  1880.  Rome,  1880.  (First  tour,  Sept.,  1877,  to  June, 
1878  :  Aden  to  San'a  and  back  ;  second  tour,  Apr.,  1878,10  Jan.,  1879  : 
Mocha,  Ta'izz,  Zebid,  Hodaida,  San'a,  Aden  ;  third,  Jan.,  1879,  to  March, 
1880:  Aden  to  N.  E.  Africa,  then  Ta'izz,  Ibb,  Yerim,  San'a,  Hodaida. 
Manzoni  always  writes  Tez  inaccurately  for  Ta'izz.) 

^  The  tours  described  in  these  works  were  made  partly  in  April,  1877, 
and  continued  from  Dec,  1877,  to  April,  1878. 

*  See  Journal  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  vol.  xlix.,  pp.   1-150. 


^wm 


DURING   19TH  CENTUBY:   ARABIA 


715 


to  Meshhed  'Ali  and  Baghdad/  The  value  of  the  Hvelv 
and  entertaining  narrative  is  enhanced  bv  a  number  of  fine 
woodcuts.  Sir 
Wilfred  and  his 
wife  had  a  better 
opportunity  than 
their  predecessors 
(excepting  Dough- 
ty, whose  work, 
however,  was  not 
published  until 
eight  years  later) 
to  survey  and  de- 
scribe the  region  ; 
especially  their 
measurements  o  f 
altitudes  make  a 
real  addition  to 
our  geographical 
knowledge. 

Only  f  o  r   the 
sake  of  complete- 
ness we  here  refer 
to  the  tour  made 
from  June  to  Sep- 
tember,   1879,  by 
Shapira,  the  Jew- 
ish antiquity  dealer  from  Jerusalem,  who  gained   a  certain 
notoriety  in  connection  with  the  well-known   Moabite  and 
other  forgeries.       He  first  travelled   from  Aden    to   San'a, 
whence  he  made  a  trip  to  'Amran,  about  twelve  hours  north- 

^  "  A  Pilgrimage  to  Nedjd,  the  Cradle  of  the  Arab  Race.  A  Visit  to  the 
Court  of  the  Arab  Emir  and  '  Our  Persian  Campaign  '  "  (the  latter  being  de- 
scribed only  in  vol.  ii.,pp.  113—232),  2  vols.,  London,  1880  (_2d  edition, 
1881). 


Azab 
'Halfivay  bctiveen  Aden  and  San'-a^^ 


716  EXPLORATIONS   IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

west  of  San'a  and  7700  teet  above  the  sea,  and  from  there 
over  the  pass  of  Kaukaban,  9200  feet  (the  highest  peak  be- 
ing T 0,000  feet),  to  Tawihi,  whence  he  returned  to  San'a. 
On  his  way  home  he  went  via  Menakha  to  Hodaida.^ 

In  April  and  May,  1881,  the  island  of  Socotra,  lying 
apart  from  the  highway  of  the  world's  commerce,  though 
famous  in  antiquity  as  the  Isle  of  Incense,  was  visited  by 
Riebeck's  expedition  in  the  interest  of  natural  science,  the 
English  botanist  Balfour  having  previously  spent  six  weeks 
there  in  1880.  A  graphic  account"  of  this  visit,  illustrated 
with  interesting  woodcuts,  was  written  by  the  famous  Afri- 
can explorer  and  botanist  Georg  Schweinfurth,  who  was  a 
member  of  that  expedition.  This  visit,  as  well  as  an  excur- 
sion made  later  by  the  same  scholar  Schweinfurth  from 
Hodaida  to  Menakha,  — i.  e.,  from  the  seacoast  to  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Alpine  region^  of  South  Arabia, —  gave  him  the 
opportunity  to  establish  that  the  sycamore  and  mimusops, 
the  two  sacred  trees  which  played  so  important  a  role  in  the 
Old-Egyptian  worship,  were  indigenous  to  South  Arabia, 
which  was  also  the  real  source  of  the  incense  early  imported 
into  Egypt  through  Nubia.  Now,  when  archaeological  dis- 
coveries make  it  more  and  more  apparent  that  Egyptian  civ- 
ilization came  from  Babylonia,  Schweinfurth's  observations 
seem  to  prove  that  Arabia  was  the  original  connecting  link 
between  the  two. 

A  tour  not  entirelv  without  results  in  geography  and 
epigraphy  was  that  made  between  February  21  and  March 
26,  I  882,  by  the  Austrian  Siegfried  Langer,^  who  travelled 

^  See  the  short  description  of  this  tour  from  the  pen  of  the  distinguished 
geographer  H.  Kiepert,  of  Berlin,  in  Globus,  vol.  xxxviii.  1880,  pp.  183-87. 

-  Ein  Besuch  auf  Socotra,  in  Westermann's  lUustrierte  Motiatshefte,  vol. 
xxxiv.,1891,  pp.  603-626,  and  vol.  xxxv.,  1891,  pp.  29-53. 

^  Verhandlungen  der  Gesellschaft  fitr  Erdkunde  zu  Berlin,  vol.  xvi., 
1  881,  nos.  4,  5  and  7. 

*  See  his  report  in  Jus  land,  1882,  no.  39,  and  in  the  same  periodical  views 


DURING  I'Jiii  CENTURY:   ARABIA  111 

from  Hodaida  via  Bet  el-Faqih  and  Dhuran  to  San'a,' 
but  unfortunately  was  murdered  in  May  of  the  same  year 
at  a  point  northeast  of  Aden. 

In  the  next  place  we  should  note  the  first  of  the  four 
fruitful  expeditions  made  between  October,  1882,  and 
March,  1884,  by  another  Austrian  scholar  by  the  name  of 
Eduard  Glaser,  For  a  whole  year  Glaser  was  detained  in 
San'a  by  the  Turkish  authorities.  This  time  he  devoted 
to  astronomical  calculations  and  to  inquiries  of  all  kinds. 
Finally  he  was  allowed  to  accompany  the  Turkish  army  in- 
vading the  territory  of  Siada  (northwest  of  San'a)  from 
October  16  to  November  15,  also  to  make  two  exploring 
expeditions  to  Shibam,  Kaukaban,  Tawila,  'Amran,  Raida, 
etc.,  and  to  Khamr,  Dhi  Bin,  and  Na'at  in  the  district 
of  the  wild  Banu  Hashid  (end  of  November,  1883,  ^o 
February,  1884).  The  numerous  inscriptions  found  were 
published  "  in  the  Parisian  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Semiticarum^ 
Himyaritic  section,  parts  1-3.  In  March,  1884,  Glaser 
returned  to  Europe. 

The  joint  expedition  carried  on  from  September,  1883,  to 
the  summer  of  1 884  by  the  Strassburg  librarian  and  professor 
Julius  Euting,  with  the  Frenchman  (orig.  Alsatian)  Charles 
Huber,  brings  us  again  to  North  Arabia.  Huber,  to  whom 
we  owe  the  discovery  of  the  interesting  Aramaic  inscription 
of  Taima  (sixth  century  before  Christ),  was  murdered  near 
Jidda,  July  29,  1884;  but  his  complete  diary,  illustrated 
by  numerous  drawings  and  maps,  is  now  at  hand  in  printed 
form,^  while  of  Euting's  diary  only  the  first  volume  has 
thus  far  appeared,^  this  ending  with  November  16,  1883. 

of  San'a  and  Dhuran  from  Langer's  papers,  published  in  Hommel's  essay 
Zur  Geschichte  U7id  Geographic  Siidarabiens  {Ausland,  vol.  Ivi.  1883,  pp. 
512-517). 

^  The  usual  and  direct  route  leads  through  Menakha. 

^  See  Glaser' s  narrative,  Meine  Reise  durch  Arhab  und  Hashid,  in  Peter- 
mann's  Geographische  Mittheilungen,  vol.  xxx.,  1884,  nos.   5  and  6. 

^   Journal  d''  un  voyage  en  Arabie,  Paris,   1891. 

*    Tagebuch  einer  Reise  in  Inner-Arabien,  i.,  Leiden,   1896. 


718 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


The  expedition  went  from  Damascus  via  'Orman  and 
Kaf  to  the  Wadi  Sirhan  or  the  North  Arabian  J  of,  the  Hidd- 
Dekel  ("wadi  of  pahns")  of  the  Bible  story  of  Kden,^ 
from  there  through  the  Nefud  desert  to  Hayil  (Hail),  the 
residence  of  the  Wahhabite  princes  of  Shammar,  whence 
several  excursions  were    made.      From  Havil    the  two  ex- 


Oasis  of  'Aqda  near  Ha 


plorers  proceeded  to  Taima,  Tabuk,  and  El-'Ola  (El-Oela), 
where  Euting  made  squeezes^  of  the  important  Minean 
(South  Arabian)  and  Lihyanian  (Tamudian)  inscriptions, 
which  in  part  had  been  previously  copied  by  Doughtv  and 
Huber.  On  March  19  Euting  and  Huber  separated. 
On    March    25    Euting   completed    his    epigraphical    re- 

^  The  Ashur  (English  Version  :  Assyria  )  mentioned  there  is  the  Arabian 
Ashur  ;  not  until  later  was  the  name  Hiddekel  applied  to  the  river  Diklat  or 
Tigris,  on  the  Assyrian  border, 

2  Published  by  D.  H.  Miiller,  Epigraphhche  Denkm'iiler  aus  Arabien, 
Vienna,  1889  ;  later  and  fuller  treatment  of  the  Minean  inscriptions  by  J.  H. 
Mordtmann,  Beitr'age  zur  minaischen  Epigraphik,  Weimar,   1896. 


DURING   Will   CENTURY:   ARABIA  719 

searches  in  that  region,  while  Huber  returned  to  Hayil, 
whence  he  travelled  via  Jebel  Nir  to  Jidda,  A  full  treatment 
of  the  rich  geographical  results  will  not  be  possible  until  the 
completion  of  Kuting's  report,  which  is  not  only  beautifully 
written  but  also  illustrated  by  a  number  of  fine  drawings. 
But  even  now  we  cannot  put  an  estimate  high  enough 
upon  the  epoch-making  discovery  of  South  Arabian  inscrip- 
tions in  the  southeastern  part  of  the  Land  of  Midian  (in  the 
above-mentioned  El-'Ola).  They  belong  to  the  flourish- 
ing period  of  the  Minean  kingdom  (about  1200-800  B. 
C. ),  and  mention  priests  and  priestesses  of  Wadd,  the  Minean 
Moon-god/ 

A  short  excursion  into  the  interior  of  'Oman  was  made  in 
1884  by  Colonel  S.  B.  Miles,  who  but  recently  gave  a  per- 
sonal account  of  the  same.^  According  to  all  descriptions, 
including  the  earlier  ones,  'Oman  must  be  a  veritable  para- 
dise ;  and  if  ever  there  existed  closer  relations  between  an- 
cient Arabia  and  India,  the  principal  rendezvous  must  have 
been  in  this  region,  which  as  yet  is  far  from  being  fully  ex- 
plored. Whether  the  civilization  of  South  Arabia  extended 
to  'Oman,  we  do  not  know,  since  unfortunately  there  has 
been  no  search  yet  for  inscriptions  in  that  quarter. 

Proceeding  in  chronological  order,  from  this  remote  corner 
of  Arabia  we  must  go  to  Mecca,  the  centre  of  Islam.  There 
in  1884-85  the  Dutch  Arabist  C.  Snouck  Hurgronje  stayed 
for  nearly  a  year,  having  embraced  Mohammedanism  for 
this  special  purpose.  To  this  man,  who  was  already  distin- 
guished for  his  knowledge  of  Islam,  such  a  long  sojourn 

^  According  to  Burton,  there  is  still  in  North  Midian  a  well  of  Moses  and 
a  chapel  of  Moses  {musallat  Musa,  literally,  the  "  praying-place  of  Moses  ")  ; 
especially  the  chapels  {salwat')  play  an  important  part  in  these  Minean  in- 
scriptions. 

^  "Journal  of  an  Excursion  in  Oman,  in  South-East  Arabia,"  with 
map,  in  the  "Geographical  Journal,"  vol.  vii.,  London,  1896,  pp.  522- 
537.      Concerning  Miles'  tour  to  Hadhramot  see  record  for  1870,  above. 


720  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

o;ave  the  materials  for  his  epoch-making  work  Mekka? 
Never  before  had  been  written  such  a  scholarly  and  at  the 
same  time  such  a  graphic  description  of  the  Holy  City,  of 
its  inhabitants  and  pilgrims,  and  of  the  customs  prevailing 
there,  never  such  a  history  of  the  city.  I'hanks  to  the 
copious  illustrations  in  the  photograph  atlas,  the  city,  with 
its  lofty  houses,  in  the  true  South  Arabian  style,  with  the 
picturesque  features  of  its  environment,  and  with  its  various 
human  tvpes,  stands  out  vividly  before  our  eyes. 

The  following  works,  with  the  sole  exception  of  Nolde's, 
bring  us  again  to  that  treasure  house  of  antiquities  and 
legends,  Southern  Arabia,  which,  by  virtue  of  its  ancient 
civilization,  to  the  people  of  Northern  and  Central  Arabia 
was  invested  with  a  halo  of  romance  even  at  the  first  period 
of  Islam." 

On  his  second  expedition  to  Yemen,  April,  1885,  to  Feb- 
ruary, 1886,  Eduard  Glaser  made  a  topographical  and 
archaeological  survey  of  the  country  to  the  southeast  and 
south  of  San'a  as  far  as  Aden,  especially  the  country  of  Tzafar 
(southeast  of  Yerim),  the  ancient  capital  of  Himyar.  Such 
thorough  investigations  as  those  of  Glaser,  on  all  of  his  four 
expeditions,  had  never  before  been  conducted  by  any  one 
in  South  Arabia.  Unfortunately  he  has  thus  far  published 
only  a  partial  report^  of  his  second  expedition.  However, 
a  large  number  of  inscribed  stones,  mostly  Minean,  which 
Glaser  obtained  during  this  expedition  are  now  in  the  Brit- 
ish Museum^  in  London. 

1  Two  vols,  written  in  German  (The  Hague,  1888),  with  picture  atlas, 
a  supplement  to  which  appeared  in  i88g,  Biider  aus  Mekka. 

2  See  especially  the  instructive  little  book  by  the  Austrian  Orientalist  Baron 
Alfred  von  Kremer,  Die  Sudarabische  Sage  (Leipzig),  and  the  chapter  on  this 
subject  in  his  larger  work,  Kulturgeschichte  des  Orients  unter  den  Chalifen. 

'^  Von  Hodeidah  nach  San'a,  in  Petermann's  Mittheilungen,  1886,  nos,  i 
and  2.  In  the  accompanying  map  are  shown  also  the  regions  northwest  of 
San 'a  traversed  by  Glaser  in  1884. 

*   See  edition  of  same  by  Derenbourg  in  "Babylonian  and  Oriental  Record;  " 


DURING   lOTH'  CENTURY:   ARABIA 


721 


In  the  year  1886  there  appeared  in  Batavia  the  valuable 
work  of  the  Dutch  Arabist  Van  den  Berg,  Le  Hadhra- 
mout,  ^  in  which 
accurate  data, 
procured  from 
native  travellers 
to  Dutch  East 
India,  are 
wrought  into  an 
interesting  nar- 
rative containing 
description  o  f 
this  portion  of 
Arabia  —  hither- 
to so  little 
known,  despite 
the  work  of 
Wrede,  Malt- 
zan,  Hirsch,  and 
Bent. 

Merely  for  the 
purpose  of  study- 
ing botany  the  Frenchman  A.  Defters  made  an  excursion  ^ 
to  Yemen  in  1887.  Other  botanical  excursions  from  Aden 
to  the  north  of  the  Turkish  frontier,  and  eastward  to 
Dathina,  were  made  subsequently  by  the  same  explorer,  who 
reported  his  results  in  the  Revue  d'Egypte. 

Eduard  Glaser's  third  expedition,  October,  1887,  to  Sep- 
tember, 1888,  was  still  richer  in  epigraphical  results  than  his 
first  two  —  richer  in  fact  than  all  former  ones  put  together, 

D.  A.  Miiller  in  the  IViener  Zeitschrift  fur  Kunde  des  Morgenlatides,  and 
Hommel  [facsimiles  of  the  larger  of  these  inscriptions]  in  his  Sudarabische 
Chrestomathie. 

'   Of  292  pages,  large  octavo,  with  map  and  illustrations. 

^  Journal  d^une  excursion  botanique,  246  pp.,  Paris,   i88g. 
53 


Village  ot"  Aredoah,  South  of  Khoraiba 


722  EXPLORATIONS   IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

including  Halevy's.  The  time  from  the  middle  of  March 
to  the  end  of  April,  1888,  was  spent  in  Marib,  the  ancient 
Sabean  capital,  he  being  the  third  European  to  visit  that 
region.  While  there  he  copied  nearly  four  hundred  inscrip- 
tions, among  them  the  "dam  inscription  "  containing  about 
100  lines,  and  dating  from  the  time  shortly  before  Moham- 
med—  published  in  Berlin  in  1899.  But  the  jewel  of  his 
collection  is  the  large  inscription  from  Sirwah,  west  of  Marib, 
consisting  of  about  1000  words,  and  dating  from  the  rise  of 
the  Sabean  kingdom,  about  550  b.  c.  An  edition  ^  of  this 
famous  text  bv  Glaser  is  in  course  of  preparation.  The 
inscribed  stones  obtained  by  Glaser  on  his  third  expedi- 
tion are  in  the  Berlin  Museum.-  The  only  report  as  yet 
published  by  Glaser  on  his  memorable  expedition  to 
Marib,  which  lies  clearly  outside  of  the  Turkish  sphere 
.  of  influence,  is  contained  in  two  articles  ^  published  by 
Hommel  ;  but  a  larger  work,  Sa^a,  is  in  course  of  prepara- 
tion. 

It  was  only  a  pleasure  trip  that  the  English  tourist  Wal- 
ter B.  Harris  made  in  January,  1892,  from  Aden  to  San'a  ; 
vet  his  publication  *  is  valuable  on  account  of  the  numerous 
photographs  of  landscapes,  which  for  the  first  time  give  a 
clear  idea  of  the  grandeur  of  the  Alpine  region  in  South 
Arabia. 

Of  Eduard  Glaser's  fourth  expedition  (from  the  begin- 
ning of  1892  to  the  spring  of  1894)  little  more  than  brief 
notices  have  been  as  yet  given  to  the  public.  Its  results  were 
confined  to  the  field  of  epigraphy.  Glaser,  who  remained 
most  of  the  time  in  San'a,  taught  Bedouins  to  make  squeezes, 

1  In  Mittheilungen  der  Vorderasiatische7i  Geselhchaft,  Berlin. 

2  Published  by  Mordtmann,  Berlin,   1893. 

3  Beilage  der  Allgemeinen  Zeitung,  1888,  nos.  293  and  294  {^Eduard 
Glaser^ s  Reise  nach  Marib). 

^  "  A  journey  through  Yemen,"  in  the  "  Illustrated  London  News,"  nos. 
from  Aug.  to  Nov.,  1892  ;   afterward  issued  in  book  form,  London,   1894. 


[fVith  Aim  Shaikh   Naji  ibn-Muhiiri,  of  the  Tribe  Al  Tu^aiman,  and  his  Nepheiu) 


DURING  19th  CENTURY:  ARABIA 


723 


and  trained  them  so  admirably  that  these  people  brought  to 
him,  as  precious  trophies,  excellent  squeezes  of  all  of  Ha- 
levy's  larger  inscriptions  from  the  Jof,  also  of  about  one 
hundred  Oatabanian  texts  from  the  country  south  of  Marib, 


Castle  at  Shibam  in  Hadhramot 


and  of  many  other  valuable  inscriptions,  the  Oatabanian  in- 
scriptions coming  from  a  region  in  which  no  F.uropean  had 
ever  before  set  foot.  I'his  time  also  Glaser  obtained  a 
number  of  inscribed  stones,  which   now  adorn  the  Court- 


724  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

Museum  in  Vienna,  and  which  were  recently  pubHshed  ^  by 
D.  H.  Mullen 

To  the  same  period  belongs  Baron  Eduard  Nolde's^  jour- 
ney, of  which  he  wrote  a  charming  description,^  from  Da- 
mascus to  the  North  Arabian  Jof,  to  Hayil,  then  to  the 
camp  of  Ibn  Rashid,  Emir  of  Shammar,  at  that  time  half- 
way between  Shaqra  and  Riyadh,  and  finally  from  there  to 
Baghdad  (January  to  March,  1893). 

No  less  interesting  is  the  tour  of  Leo  Hirsch,  of  Berlin, 
to  HadhramotM January  to  August,  1893),  he  being  the 
first  European  to  reach  the  present  capital  Shibam  and  even 
Yerim.  Not  even  A.  von  Wrede  had  reached  these  two 
places.  But  no  one  as  yet  has  succeeded  in  visiting  Shabwa 
(Sabota  of  the  classic  writers),  the  ancient  capital  of  the 
kingdom  of  Hadhramot  and  so  rich  in  inscriptions. 

While  Hirsch's  visit  to  Mahraland,  remarkable  for  its 
dialect,  was  limited  to  a  short  stay  at  the  two  coast  towns  of 
Sehut  and  Gishin  (Keshin),  in  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1895  ^h^  Frankincense  Country  proper,  or  the  district  of 
Tzafar,  lying  east  of  these  places  and  west  of  Mirbat,  was 
visited  bv  the  late  lamented  explorer  J.  Theodore  Bent 
(■ti897)   and    his  wife,  who  was   his  constant  companion.^ 

1  Sudarabische  Alterthiimer  im  Kunst-historischen  Hofmuseum,  mit  14 
Lichtdruchtafeln,  Vienna,  1899.  Compare,  also,  Hommel,  Aufsatze  utid 
Abhandlungen,  ii.  pp.  129-206  (with  a  glossary  of  those  texts,  pp.  168, 
seqq.  ). 

-  Died  bv  his  own  hand,  March  11,   1895,  in  London. 

3  See  his  Reise  ?iach  hmerarabien,  Kurdistan  und  Armenkn,  l8g2  (error 
for  1893  ),  Braunschweig,  1895.  Special  attention  is  called  to  the  two  in- 
structive chapters  on  the  camel  and  the  horse. 

■*  Reisen  in  Siidarabien,  Mahraland  und  Hadhramut,  Leiden,  1897. 
Concerning  the  defects  in  the  otherwise  meritorious  narrative  of  Hirsch  see 
the  competent  opinion  of  Eduard  Glaser  in  Petermann's  Mittheilungen,  1897, 

no.  3,  pp.  37-39- 

5  He  published  an  account  of  his  visit  —  "  Exploration  of  the  Frankincense 
Country,  Southern  Arabia  "  —  with  photographic  illustrations,  in  the  '*  Geo- 


DURING  IQTH  CENTURY:  ARABIA 


725 


Both  spent  the  winter  of  1893-94  in   Hadhramot,  where 
they  travelled  as  far  as  Shibam.^ 

Several  years  before  (in  1889)  Bent  had  already  made  a 
trip  to  Bahrain,  which  is  treated  on  pp.  1-43  of  his  but 
recently  published  book  "  Southern  Arabia,"  London, 
1900.  In  addition,  however,  to  Bent's  interesting  discourse 
upon  the   Frankincense  Country,  the  reader  is  hereby  re- 


South  Arabian  W^adi  and  Castle 

ferred  to  Glaser's  comments  in  his  book  on  the  Abessinians 
in  Arabia  and  Africa." 

In  February,  1896,  the  distinguished  Arabist  Count 
Carlo  Landberg,  one  of  the  best  experts  in  the  Arabic  pop- 
ular dialects,  visited  the  "  Raven  Castle  "  (  Hisn  el-Ghurab) 

graphical  Journal,"  vol.  vi.,  1895,  pp.  109-134.    See,  also,  his  recently  pub- 
lished book  "Southern  Arabia,"  London,  1900,  pp.  227-285. 

^  See  "Southern  Arabia,"  pp.  71-225. 

2   Die  Abessinier  in  Arabien  und  Afrika,  Munich,   1895,  pp.   182-189. 


726  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

on  the  coast  of  South  Arabia,  whence  he  brought  back 
squeezes  and  photographs  ot  the  inscription  there,  long 
known  but  not  accurately  copied.  Of  these  and  ot  his  in- 
quiries, in  the  winters  of  1895-96  and  1896—97,  among  the 
natives  in  Aden  concerning  the  regions  of  Dathina,  'Awaliq 
and  El-Hadina  comparatively  still  unknown,  he  has  given  a 
full  report  in  his  Arabica^  no.  4  (Leiden,  1897).  In  no. 
5,  of  the  same  publication,  which  appeared  in  the  fall  of 
1898,  he  continues  these  inquiries,  giving  us  new  and  most 
surprising  information  about  the  exact  location  of  Baihan, 
Maryama,  Raidan,  Harib,  Timna',  the  Wahidi  land,  and 
Shabwa,  the  ancient  capital  of  Hadhramot. 

In  December,  1898,  the  expedition  of  the  Vienna  Acad- 
emy to  Shabwa,  conducted  by  Count  Landberg  and  accom- 
panied by  the  Viennese  Orientalist  D.  H.  Muller,  departed 
from  Bal-Haf.  But  it  failed  to  get  farther  than  'Azzan  in 
the  Wadi  Maifa'at,  whence  it  had  to  return  to  the  coast. 
Although  unsuccessful  in  its  attempt  to  reach  Ansab  and 
Shabwa,  by  the  mediation  of  Count  Landberg  the  Vienna 
expedition  succeeded  in  securing  a  new  squeeze  ot  the 
inscription  found  near  Naqb  el-Hajar  and  in  copying  there 
two  more  inscriptions  hitherto  unknown.  From  these  it 
was  proved  that  the  people  in  the  Wadi  Maifa'at  in  anti- 
quity were  devoted  to  the  worship  of  the  god  'Amm  {i.  e.^ 
the  Moon  as  the  divine  "uncle"  or  protector)  and  were 
therefore  probably  mere  subjects  of  the  powerful  kingdom 
of  Q?-taban,  which  must  have  extended  farther  eastward  than 
was  formerly  supposed.  In  Aden,  in  consequence  of  disa- 
greements with  Muller,  Count  Landberg  quit  the  expedi- 
tion ;  while  the  former  with  some  other  scholars  trom 
Vienna,  mostly  naturalists,  proceeded  (February,  1899)  to 
the  island  of  Socotra,  to  study  with  Dr.  Jahn  the  dialect  of 
the  island,  which  is  related  to  the  Mahra  language.  Rich 
as  it  is  in  ruins  and  inscriptions,  Shabwa  is  still  unvisited  by 
Europeans,  awaiting  exploration  in  the  twentieth  century. 


DURING'  19TH  CENTURY:  ARABIA  727 

II 

The  great  importance  of  Arabia  in  relation  to  the  Old 
Testament  and  to  Biblical  study  depends  not  upon  its  des- 
erts and  oases,  not  upon  its  palm  trees  and  camels,  nor 
even  upon  its  famous  products,  gold,  precious  stones  and 
perfumes  (frankincense  and  myrrh),  although  the  latter  did 
also  play  an  important  part  in  the  Hebrew  worship,  —  but 
upon  the  inscriptions  found  by  bold  travellers  east  of  the 
Land  of  Midian,  and  especially  in  Southern  Arabia,  and 
upon  the  valuable  cuneiform  records  left  to  us  by  the  Baby- 
lonians and  Assyrians  concerning  the  different  divisions  and 
tribes  of  Arabia,  mostly  the  very  ones  that  are  mentioned 
in  the  Bible. 

Beginning  with  the  inscriptions  found  in  Arabia  itself, 
it  is  only  for  the  sake  of  completeness  that  we  mention 
at  the  outset  the  Nabatean  inscriptions  dating  from  the 
centuries  nearest  to  the  time  of  Christ.  Such  were 
found  on  the  peninsula  of  Sinai,  in  Petra  and  also  in  El- 
*01a  (Oela).^  The  language  of  these  inscriptions  is  Ara- 
maic, though  the  names  of  their  authors  are  mostly  Arabic. 
The  style  of  writing,  from  which  the  later  Arabic  writing 
was  immediately  derived,  is  a  semi-cursive  corruption  of  the 
so-called  Old-Aramaic,  which  in  turn  represents  a  later  off- 
shoot of  the  Phenician.  There  are,  however,  some  inscrip- 
tions from  Taima,  not  later  than  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ,  which  are  written  in  the  Old-Aramaic  characters  and 
in  the  Aramaic  language  ;  the  largest  of  them  was  mentioned 
above  in  connection  with  Huber,  1883.  The  stdt{suwita  = 
Assyr.  asumitu)  on  which  it  was  engraved  shows  Assyrian  in- 
fluence, as  do  the  names  of  gods  mentioned  in  it  {Mahram, 
Shungalla  =  Babyl.-Assyr.  Ushumgallu,  Ashira,  and  Selem  = 
Salmu).  In  El-'Ola  were  found,  along  with  Nabatean  (so- 
called  Proto- Arabic,  usually  containing  only  names  of  per- 

^  See  under  Doughty,  Huber,  and  Euting  above. 


728  EXPLOBATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

sons)  and  Minean  inscriptions,  also  Lihyanian  inscriptions, 
written  in  a  variety  of  the  South  Arabian  alphabet  and  near 
in  time  to  the  Nabatean  inscriptions  (according  to  Glaser 
dating  from  a  time  no  earlier  than  that  between  the  Naba- 
tean supremacy  and  Mohammed).  They  are,  therefore,  of 
no  greater  importance  for  Biblical  antiquity  than  the  Naba- 
tean inscriptions,  though  it  is  to  be  observed  that  they  con- 
tain proper  names  of  such  an  archaic  form  as  Talmai  (comp. 
Judges  I  :  lo  and  2  Sam.  3:3),  and  that  their  language 
represents  a  North  Arabian  dialect  showing  many  points 
of  contact  with  the  Hebrew, —  e.g.,  the  article  han-,  ha- 
(comp.  Hebr.  ham-melek  from  han-melek,  Arabic  al-malik 
from  han-malik).  The  so-called  Proto-Arabic  inscriptions, 
or  rather  merely  scribbled  names,  are  also  written  in  an 
alphabet  very  similar  to  that  of  South  Arabia,^  and  are  often 
hard  to  decipher.  This  alphabet  shows  some  striking  points 
of  similarity  to  the  writing  of  the  Abessinian  inscriptions 
and  seems  to  belong  properly  to  the  Frankincense  Country. 
However,  most  of  the  inscriptions  found  in  Arabia  be- 
long, in  style  of  writing  as  well  as  in  language,  to  a  family 
group  embracing  two  dialects  and  to  be  regarded  as  native 
to  South  Arabia,  although  for  various  reasons  it  is  most 
probable  that  it  originated  in  East  Arabia,  —  /'.  e.,  the  so- 
called  "Sea-country  "  of  the  ancient  Babylonians  (Bahrain) 
and  Yemama,  or  in  short  Magan  (  =  Ma'an).  These  two 
dialects  are  the  Minean  and  the  Sabean. 

In  the  older  dialect,  the  so-called  Minean,  are  written  :  — 
I.  The  Minean  roval  inscriptions  (about  1400-700  b.  c), 
found  in  the  South  Arabian  Jof  (see,  above,  Halevy,  under 
1870)  and  in  El-'Ola  in  Northwest  Arabia  (see,  above,  Eu- 
ting,  1883),  where  the  Mineans  had  colonies  extending  to 
the  borders  of  Edom. 

1.  The  Oatabanian  royal  inscriptions  (see,  above,  Glaser, 
1  See  D.  H.  Muller's  essay  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Oriental  Congress 
at  London,  vol.  ii.,  1893,  pp.  86-95. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   ARABIA  729 

1893),  excepting  one  ^  that  a  Greek  trader  sent  to  Europe,^ 
are  still  unedited.  These  were  found  chiefly  in  the  country 
south  of  Marib,  viz.,  Harib  (Timna')  and  probably  also 
Baihan  and  'Awaliq,  /.  e.,  the  whole  territory  between  Yemen 
proper  and  Hadhramot.  The  kings  of  Qataban  were  con- 
temporary with  those  of  Ma'an  (later  pronounced  Ma'in, 
hence  Wdvaloi,  Mivaloi),  and  with  the  Sabeans  until  about 

200   B.   C. 

3.  The  inscriptions  of  Hadhramot,  of  which  only  two  are 
as  yet  known,  one  ^  from  Shabwa,  the  ancient  residence  of 
the  kings  of  Hadhramot,  and  the  other  from  'Obne,  written 
in  the  later  language  of  Hadhramot  and  discovered  by  A. 
von  Wrede.  The  kingdom  of  Hadhramot  was  also  con- 
temporaneous with  that  of  Ma'an,  continuing,  however, 
until  the  first  or  second  century  of  our  era.  Also  the  Min- 
ean  tomb  inscription  found  in  Egypt  and  dating  from  the 
age  of  the  Ptolemies'^  is  probably  of  Hadhramotian  origin. 

All  the  other  inscriptions  are  written  in  the  Sabean  dia- 
lect, the  oldest  dating  from  the  time  of  the  so-called  priest- 
kings  {makrub,  plural  makarib)  of  Sheba  and  written 
mostly  boustrophedon  (beginning  about  700  b.  c);  others 
from  the  time  of  the  "  Kings  of  Saba  (Sheba)  "  (to  about 
115  B.  c),  then  those  from  the  time  of  the  "  Kings  of  Saba 
(Sheba)  and  Dhu-Raidan  "  (after  Qataban  lost  its  independ- 
ence, to  about  300  A.  D.),  and  finally  those  from  the  time 
of  the  "  Kings  of  Saba  (Sheba),  Dhu-Raidan,  and  Hadhra- 
mot" (to  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  of  our  era). 

^  Perhaps  also  the  inscription  of  Naqb  el-Hajar  (Wadi  Maifa'at),  though 
hitherto  regarded  as  Hadhramotian,  is  of  Oatabanian  origin,  considering  the 
mention  of 'Amm  (as  seen  in  Count  Landberg's  new  squeeze),  the  chief  god 
of  the  Qatabanians. 

^  See  Hommel's  edition  in  Zeitschrift  der  Deutsche?;  Morgenlaridischen 
Gesellschaft,  vol.  liii.,  i  899,  part  i. 

^  Osiander,  No.   29  =:  British  Museum,  No.  6. 

*  See  Hommel  in  the  "  Proceedings  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archeology," 
March,   1894. 


730  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

The  Mineo-Sabean  writing  was  derived  from  the  same 
alphabet  as  that  of  Canaan  (the  so-called  Phenician,  the  old- 
est monument  dating  from  about  looo  b.  c).  Since  ac- 
cording to  native  tradition  the  Phenicians  (compare  Herod- 
otus) came  from  East  Arabia,  we  have  another  reason  for 
believing  that  this  original  alphabet  of  all  the  western  Se- 
mitic forms  of  writing  ( Phenician,  Canaanean,  and  Aramaic 
on  the  one  hand,  the  South  Arabian  on  the  other)  origi- 
nated in  the  country  of  Magan  (=  Ma'an),  not  later  than 
in  the  first  half  of  the  second  millennium  before  Christ.  In 
palaeography  the  Minean  royal  inscriptions  are  most  closely 
related  to  the  oldest  Sabean  — as  is  quite  natural,  since  the 
Minean  kingdom,  according  to  the  Sirwah  inscription  (dis- 
covered by  Glaser,  but  still  unedited),  was  indeed  finally 
conquered  by  the  priest-kings  of  Saba  (Sheba)  not  later 
than  about  550  b.  c.  The  inscriptions  of  the  "  kings"  of 
Saba  (Sheba)  exhibit  letters  of  a  somewhat  later  form. 
Moreover,  the  alphabet  of  the  Christian  Abessinians  (the  so- 
called  Ethiopians),  the  oldest  forms  of  which  are  found  in 
inscriptions  of  the  fourth  centurv  of  our  era,  is  derived  from 
the  South  Arabian,  or  rather  from  a  variety  of  it,  that  must 
have  been  used  in  the  southern  and  western  parts  ot  Hadh- 
ramot.  Its  origin  in  this  region,  in  which  the  so-called 
Mahra  dialect  is  now  spoken,  is  indicated  by  the  linguistic 
relation  of  the  Ethiopic  in  phonology  and  morphology  as 
well  as  in  vocabularv.  From  this  quarter  the  ancestors  of 
the  Semitic  Abessinians,  perhaps  even  before  the  time  of 
Christ,  emigrated  to  Habesh. 

The  most  important  facts  concerning  the  discovery  of  the 
South  Arabian  inscriptions  have  been  given  in  Part  I.  (Ex- 
ploring Expeditions).  Arnaud,  Halevy,  Euting,^  and 
above  all,  Eduard  Glaser,  are  the  men  who  procured  most 
of  the  inscriptions  proving  at  the  same  time  the  most  inter- 

^  Contributed  only  few  inscriptions,  but  the  more  important  because  they 
came  from  El-'Ola  in  Northwest  Arabia. 


DURING   19TI1  CENTURY:   ARABIA 


731 


esting.  If  Glaser  had  published  all  of  his  results,  not  only 
would  his  name  head  the  list,  but  it  would  stand  almost 
alone,  since  he, 
e.  g.,  has  excel- 
lent squeezes 
even  of  Hale- 
vy's  Minean 
inscriptions, 
which  had  in 
many  cases  been 
imperfectly  cop- 
ied. As  for  the 
interpretation, 
including  the 
decipherment, 
all  the  main 
points  had  been 
settled  by  the 
two  epoch-mak- 
ing essays  of 
Gesenius^  and 
E.  Rodiger,"  de- 
spite the  meagre 
material  then  at 
their  disposal. 
Next,  coming 
before  Halevy's 
686  inscrip 
tions,  were  Ar- 
naud's  56  numbers  (published  by  Fresnel  in  1845). 

^  Uifr  die  Himjaritische  Sprache  und  Schrift,  in  the  Jllgemeine  Literatur- 
Zeitutig,  July,  1841. 

2  Excurs  iiber  die  von  Lieutenant  Welbted  bekannt  genuuhten  himjariti- 
schen  Inschriften,  in  Wellsted's  "  Travels  in  Arabia,"  German  edition,  Halle, 
1842,  vol.  ii.,pp.  352-411. 


Bronze  Tablet  with   Sabean   Inscription 
(  From    ^Amran ) 


Y32  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

The  material  treated  by  the  two  German  scholars  Gese- 
nius  and  Rodiger  having  been  increased  bv  Arnaud's  fifty- 
six  numbers  and  in  1863  by  fourteen  inscribed  stones  and 
twenty-eight  bronze  tablets  from  'Amran  acquired  by  the 
British  Museum,  eyen  before  the  publication  of  Haleyy's 
686  new  inscriptions,  the  decipherment  of  the  South  Arabian 
inscriptions  —  except  in  a  few  minor  points  —  was  actually 
completed  by  Osiander,^  whose  interpretation  of  the  British 
Museum  texts  just  mentioned  appeared  in  1865,"  a  year 
after  his  death,  while  his  resume  of  all  the  results  hitherto 
obtained  was  published  in  1866.^ 

The  history  of  Sabean  philology  from  1866  to  1892  can 
best  be  followed  in  connection  with  the  full  bibliographical 
summary  in  Hommel's  "South  Arabian  Chrestomathy."  ■* 
The  most  distinguished  names  in  it  are  those  of  the  scho- 
lars Joseph  Haleyy,  Franz  Prastorius,  T.  H.  Mordtmann, 
D.  H.  Muller,  and  Eduard  Glaser.  As  showing  the  pro- 
gress of  epigraphical  research  in  the  last  decade,  we  must 
refer  also  to  Part  IV  ^  of  the  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Semitica- 
rum,  edited  by  Hartw.  Derenbourg  and  published  by  the 
Paris  Academy,  to  Hommel's  aboye-mentioned  "  South 
Arabian  Chrestomathy,"  and  to  several  publications  by 
Mordtmann,  Hommel,  Hugo  Winckler,  and  especially 
Glaser. 

Most  important  are  the  religious  features  presented  to  us 
in  the  South  Arabian  inscriptions,  which  since  the  time  of 

^  Died  March  21,  1864,  as  minister  {diaconus)  at  Goeppingen. 

"^  In  Zeitschrift  dcr  Deutschen  Morgenlaitdhcheri  Geselhchaft,  vol.  xix.,  pp. 
159-293,  with  35  lithographic  plates,  under  the  title  Zur  himjarischen 
Alter thumskunde,  I. 

3  In  the  same  journal,  vol.  xx.,  1866,  pp.  205-287  :  Zur  himjarischen 
Alterthumskunde,  II.,  a.  Writing  and  Language  of  the  Inscriptions,  b.  His- 
torical and  Archa?ological  Significance  of  the  Same. 

*  Siidarabische  Chrestomathie  (  Grammar,  Bibliography,  Minean  Inscrip- 
tions with  Glossary),  Munich,  1893. 

*  Published  in  three  sections,   1889,   1892,  and  1899. 


DURING   10'"   CENTURY:   ARABIA  '^33 

Osiander  have  in  fact  received  no  systematic  treatment  except 
in  Baethgen's  "Contributions  to  the  History  of  Semitic 
Religion,"  ^  and  there  only  in  brief  and  not  based  upon  the 
original  sources.  It  is  almost  incredible  that,  despite  the 
abundance  of  new  material  at  hand,  C.  P.  Tide's  "  History 
of  Ancient  Religion,"'"  as  well  as  Friedrich  Jeremias'  chapter 
on  this  subject  in  Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye's  "  Handbook 
of  the  History  of  Religion,"^  have  entirely  neglected  the 
Mineo-Sabean  mythology,  which  in  many  points  is  so 
closely  related  to  the  religion  of  the  Babylonians,  Canaan- 
ites,  and  Arameans.  The  fact  alone  that  the  South  Arabian 
proper  names  consisting  of  two  elements  are  formed  in  entire 
analogy  with  those  belonging  to  the  other  Western  Semites 
commands  our  attention.'* 

Whenever  several  gods  are  mentioned  together  in  the  in- 
scriptions of  any  of  the  four  chief  nations  of  South  Arabia 
(Mineans,  Hadhramotians,  Qatabanians,  and  Sabeo-Him- 
yarites)  the  first  name  is  usually  that  of  the  male  deity  ^Athtar^ 
probably  a  personification  of  the  morning  or  evening  star 
respectively.  The  second  place  is  occupied  by  the  national 
deity,  differently  named  by  all  the  four  nations,  but  in  each  case 
to  be  recognized  as  the  Moon-god  :  by  the  Mineans  called 
Wadd  (literally,  "love,"  or  rather  "  lover  "  =  friend) ;  by 
the  inhabitants  of  Hadhramot,  ^yiw  (compare  the  Babylonian 
Sin  =  moon)  ;  by  the  Qatabanians,  ^Amm  (literally,  "  father's 

^  Published  in  German,  Beitrage  zur  Semitischen  Religio/isgeschichte, 
Berlin,  1888. 

^  In  Dutch  i^Geschiedenis,  etc.,  Amsterdam,  1893),  and  in  German  {Ge- 
schichte  der  Religion  im  Alter  turn,  etc.,  i.,  part  2,  Vorderasie7i,  Gotha,  1896). 

3  Lehrbiich  der  Religio/isgeschichte,  2d  edition,  Freiburg,  1897,  i.,  pp. 
163—221. 

*  See  the  treatment  of  this  subject  in  Hommel's  "  The  Ancient  Hebrew 
Tradition,"  New  York  and  London,  1897.  Bv  means  of  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions the  proper  names  can  now  be  traced  back  to  the  time  of  Abraham  and 
Khammurabi  (about  2100  b.  c),  in  some  cases  even  to  the  time  of  Sargon 
and  Naram-Sin  of  Agade. 


734  EXPLORATIONS   IX    BIBLE  LANDS 

brother,"  in  the  sense  of  fatherly  friend  or  protector)  ;  by 
the  Sabeans,  Almaqu-hu  ("  his  lights  "  or  "  stars  "),  his  full 
name  being  Haubas  wa-ahnaqu-hu  {-  "the  moon  and  his 
shining  attendants  "  —  compare  Jahveh  [Jehovah]  Zeba'oth. 
The  third  place  in  the  Pantheon  of  the  Mineans  is  always 
occupied  bv  An-Kurah  ("  Hate,"  as  opposed  to  Wadd),  writ- 
ten Nkrh,t\\&  vowels  being  omitted  in  the  writing  of  South 
Arabia,  —  the  people  of  Hadhramot  having  in  his  place  the 
god  Huwal  or  Hdl^  and  the  Qatabanians  Anbay  (probably  = 
Nabivu,  Nebo  of  the  Babylonians).  The  fourth  place 
among  all  the  four  above-named  nations  is  held  by  a  num- 
ber of  sun  deities,  always  represented  as  females  and  only 
locally  distinguished  according  to  their  different  temples 
[e.  g.y "  the  mistress  of  Nashq  "  in  the  land  of  the  Mineans, 
"  the  mistress  of  Ba'dan  "  and  of  other  places  in  the  land 
of  the  Sabeans).  For,  as  differing  from  the  Babylonians 
proper  and  the  Canaanites  influenced  by  the  former  (with 
both  of  whom  Ba'al  =  "  Sun  "  is  the  chief  deity,  while  'As/i- 
toreth  -  "Moon-goddess  "  is  his  consort),  the  Arabs,  and  so 
originallv  the  Arameans  and  Hebrews,  regarded  the  moon 
as  the  chief  deity  and  the  sun  as  his  female  counterpart.  In 
Babylonia  the  two  principal  sanctuaries  of  Shamash  or  the 
Sun-god  were  at  Larsa  and  Sippar  (the  Moon-goddess,  Ai  or 
Gula,  being  his  consort)  ;  while  in  the  district  of  Ur,  Chal- 
dea  proper,  which  from  ancient  times  was  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Arabian  "Sea-country"  (later  called  Btt-Takin), 
and  also  in  the  Aramean  city  Haran,'  the  moon  {Ai,  Ta,  or 
Sin)  was  the  chief  deity,  being  represented  as  male.  That 
the  ancient  Babylonian  god  of  the  earth  and  sea  in  the 
Semitic-Babylonian  texts  got  the  surname  Ya,  while  Sin  was 
received  in  the  pantheon  as  a  deity  distinct  from  Ya  —  these 

^  And  in   Syria  also,  as  is  shown  by  the  Nerab  inscriptions   found  near 
■  Aleppo,    the   Moon-god  (Sa/iar)  and  his  consort   Nikkal  (Babylonian   Nifi- 
gal)  were  the  chief  deities.     Compare  South  Arabian  WadJ  Shahran  (Glaser, 
no.  324,  3). 


DURING   lO'fiJ  CENTURY:   ARABIA  735 

facts  belong  to  the  later  ^  syncretism  and  are  evidently  due 
to  West  Semitic,  Arabian  influence. 

Besides  the  above-named  deities,  in  the  South  Arabian 
inscriptions  we  occasionally  find  still  others,  most  frequently 
the  tutelary  deity  of  Riyam  (north  of  San'a),  Talab  (comp. 
the  Arabic  talab,  "  ibex  ;  "  hence  perhaps  Capricornus  in 
the  Zodiac),  then  a  god  called  Sami'-  (=  "  the  Hearer,"  scil. 
of  prayers),  a  western  and  eastern  Nasr  ( =  the  two  eagles  in 
the  sky),  a  god  called  ^inan  (comp.  Hebrew  Q(  K)ain  or  the 
Midianite  tribe  of  Qenites  ;  perhaps  the  patron  of  gold- 
smiths and  musicians),  another  named  Ramman  in  Shibam, 
northwest  of  San'a,'  identical  of  course  with  the  Babylonian 
god  Rammanu  (by  Syrians  and  Assyrians  called  Hadad) 
and  with  the  Biblical  Hadad-Rimmon.  There  was  also  a 
god  named  Hagir  [i.  e.,  "  he  who  prevents,  wards  off," 
scil.  misfortune),  another  named  Dhu-Samwa  (Samwa  being 
a  sanctuary  of  the  Banu  Amir  in  the  district  of  Nejran),  then 
a  Oatabanian  god  named  Dhaw  (=  Palmy ranian  Saw  and 
Hebrew  Saw,^  Hos.  5  :  11),  and  still  others. 

As  in  the  inscriptions  of  Senjirli  (situated  in  the  extreme 
northwestern  part  of  the  Semitic  territory)  immediately 
after  Hadad,  the  Syrian  Moon-god  (originally  Hodad,  comp. 
Wadd  and  alongside  the  later  Arabic  Udd  and  Udad),  there 
appears  a  god  named  El  ("  god  "  par  excellence,  but  here  by 
the  side  of  others),  so  we  find  a  god  named  //  at  two  places 
in  South  Arabia,  once  in  the  originally  Minean  city  Harim 
and  again  in  the  territory  of  Qataban.  We  have  from 
Harim  a  number  of  inscriptions  recording  the  consecration 
of  virgins  to  the  god  Motab-Natiyan,  probably  a  Midianite 
deity .^    One  of  the  consecrators  is  there  called  "  Priest  of  II 

^  Though  brought  about  before  2000  b.  c. 
^  See  Glaser,  no.   119. 

^  Translated  wrongly  "  the  commandment  "  or  "  command  "  in  the  Eng- 
lish Version.  —  The  Editor. 

*  Comp.  Hommel,  "The  Ancient  Hebrew  Tradition,"  p.  320. 
54 


736  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

and  of 'Athtar."  ^  We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  here 
II  is  only  the  true  name  of  Motab-Natiyan,-'  as  the  special 
gods  of  Harim  were  rather  Wadd  and  Yada'a-sumhu.  And 
in  a  Qatabanian  inscription  ^  are  named  in  succession  ''Athtar 
—  the  Riser,  ^Amtn,  Niswar  (or  Nasawir^  com  p.  Nasr 
above),  and  //  Fakhr  (or  Fukhr),  the  last  named  to  be  trans- 
lated perhaps  as  "  God  of  the  Universe,"  or  else  (according 
to  North  Arabian  meaning  o^  fakhr)  "  God  of  Fame." 

Since,  moreover,  the  language  and  religion  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Sam'al  (Senjirii)  show  remarkable  points  of  contact 
with  those  of  Midian,  the  worship  of  El,  as  whose  priest 
appears  Jethro,  the  father-in-law  of  Moses,  was  probably 
brought  from  there  to  both  Sam'al  and  Harim.  Also  the 
designation  of  God  as  "  the  Rock  "  {Zilr)  is  found  among 
the  Midianites  as  well  as  in  the  proper  names  of  the  inscrip- 
tions from  Sam'al  and  Harim,^  a  fact  of  deep  significance  in 
its  bearing  upon  the  history  of  Old  Testament  religion  and 
the  fidelity  of  Old  Testament  tradition. 

But  before  we  turn  from  the  South  Arabian  inscriptions 
to  the  Israelites  and  the  Old  Testament,  let  us  mention 
three  other  sources  for  the  geography  and  ethnology  of  an- 
cient Arabia. 

I.  The  statements  of  the  ancient  classic  writers  (Strabo, 
Pliny,  the  author  of  Periplus  Maris  Erythr^i^  and  Ptolemy) 
who  lived  shortly  before  and  after  the  birth  of  Christ. 

1.  The  numerous  works  of  Arabian  writers  on  the  geo- 
graphy of  Arabia,  Hamdani's  Jezirat  el-^Arab^  edited  by 
D.  H.  Miiller,  Bekri's  and  Yaqiat's  geographical  dictionaries, 
edited    by  Wiistenfeld,   the    latter   two    dealing   principally 

'   Halevy,  nos.   144  and  150. 

^  This  would  correspond  to  a  Hebrew  mbshab  han-notah,  "  throne  of  him 
(/'.  e.,  the  god)  who  stretches  forth  the  hand  "  or  "  who  spreads  out  the 
heavens." 

®  Joannis  Kallisperis,  1.  8,  srf. 

*  Comp.  Hommel,  "  Ancient  Hebrew  Tradition,"  p.  320,  se^. 


DURING  IQTii  CENTURY:  ARABIA  737 

with  the  names  of  Arabian  places,  mountains,  and  rivers  fre- 
quently mentioned  in  the  Bedouin  songs  dating  from  the 
time  shortly  before  and  after  Mohammed.  All  that  per- 
tains to  this  subject,  especially  the  information  given  by  the 
classic  writers,  was  systematically  treated  in  A.  Sprenger's 
work  "The  Ancient  Geography  of  Arabia"^  and  in  the 
second  volume  of  Ed.  Glaser's  "Sketch  of  the  History  and 
Geography  of  Arabia,"  "  of  which  the  latter  work  is  espe- 
cially rich  in  new  facts  and  new  views.  Supplements  to  the 
former  work  are  to  be  found  in  Sprenger's  essay  on  Ham- 
dani's  description  of  the  Arabian  Peninsula,^  and  his  other 
essay  referred  to  above  in  connection  with  Doughty. 

3.  The  third  source,  to  which  we  are  introduced  by 
Glaser's  work,  are  the  Babylono-Assyrian  cuneiform  in- 
scriptions. These  supply  more  or  less  detailed  information 
on  several  parts  of  Arabia  from  about  3000  b.  c.  The 
rich  information  contained  in  the  royal  inscriptions  from 
Tiglath-Pileser  III.  to  Ashurbanapal  (8th  and  7th  centu- 
ries before  Christ)  had  already  been  gathered  by  Friedrich 
Delitzsch.'^  But  the  correct  location  of  so  many  places  and 
tribes  mentioned  in  those  inscriptions  is  due  to  the  bold  but 
accurate  observations  of  Glaser,  who  proved  that  not  all  of 
them  were  to  be  sought  for  in  the  Syro-Arabian  desert,  but 
that  many  were  found  in  Central  Arabia.  For  the  old 
Babylonian  period  the  most  important  result  is  that  for  the 
first  time  Glaser  properly  defined  the  geographical  meanings 
of  Magan  and  Melukh,  proving  Magan  (according  to  Winck- 
ler  and  myself  =  Ma'an)  to  be  East  Arabia,  and  Melukh 
Central  and  West  Arabia  as  far  as  the  Sinaitic  Peninsula. 

1  In  German  :    Die  alte  Geographie  Arabietis,  Bern,   1875. 

2  In  German  :  Skizze  der  Geschichte  und  Geographie  Arabiens,  vol.  ii. 
(^Geographic),  Berlin,  1890. 

'  Versuch  einer  Kritik  von  Hamdhiis  Beschreibung  der  arabischen  Halb- 
insel,  in  the  Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenldndischen  Gese  Use  haft,  vol. 
xlv.,  1891,  pp.  361-394. 

*  In  his  book  IVo  lag  das  Paradies  ? 


738  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

Since  the  appearance  of  Glaser's  epoch-making  work  our 
knowledge  of  Arabia  from  ancient  Babylonian  sources  has 
become  more  and  more  clear.  Among  the  scientific  contri- 
butions made  in  this  line,  may  be  numbered  my  own  proofs 
of  the  crossing  of  Arabia  referred  to  in  the  Nimrod  Epic 
and  of  the  Arabian  origin  of  the  so  called  Hammurabi 
dynasty  ruling  at  the  time  of  Abraham  (about  2100  b.  c.).^ 
Of  especial  importance  are  the  following  facts  :  — 

Even  the  very  old  Sumerian  inscriptions  of  the  kings  and 
priest-kings  {patesi)  of  SirguUa  -  in  South  Babylonia  know 
of  Arabia,  stating  that  from  Magan  (written  Ma-al^  but 
pronounced  Ma-gan^)  "all  sorts  of  timber  "  were  brought 
to  Babylonia.  Fuller  information  concerning  Arabia  is  ob- 
tained from  the  inscriptions  of  the  famous  patesi  Gudea 
(about  3000  B.  c.  ),  who  procured  copper  from  the  "great 
ancestral  gate  "  of  the  land  of  Ki-mash  (probably  Jebel 
Sham  mar  in  Central  Arabia),  ushu  wood  and  iron  from  the 
mountains  of  Melukh  (Northwest  Arabia  as  far  as  the  penin- 
sula of  Sinai),  gold-dust  from  the  mountains  oi Khakhum  (near 
Medina),  gold-dust  and  dolerite  from  the  mountains  of 
Magan  (written  Ma-gan).  Also  Gubin,  the  mountains  of  the 
khalub  trees,  mentioned  after  the  aforenamed  countries,  is  to 
be  sought  for  in  Arabia.  Furthermore,  in  the  same  inscrip- 
tions Magan,  Melukh,  Gubi,  and  the  mountains  of  Nituk 
are  mentioned  together  in  one  sentence  as  the  source  of  all 
kinds  of  trees.  Nituk,  in  Semitic  Dilmun  (by  dissimilation 
from  Dilmum,  um  representing  the  Arabic  nominative  end- 
ing), is  the  larger  of  the  Bahrain  Islands  —  the  ancient  Tylos, 
the  modern  Samak.  There,  and  also  on  the  opposite  coast 
of  Arabia  (Magan)  from  ancient  times  there  must  have 
been  Sumerian  sanctuaries,  and  Arabian  and  Sumerian  in- 
fluences must  have  intermingled.     The  goddess  Zarpanit  of 

^  To  be  found  in  mv  book  "  Ancient  Hebrew  Tradition." 

^  Generally  transcribed  by  Assyriologists  Shir-pur-la.  —  The  Editor. 

'  Other  Assv-riologists  regard  this  reading  as  doubtful.  —  The  Editor. 


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TREASURES  PAyE  DEATH-PIT 

Archeologisis  at  Ur  of  Chaldees  Unearth  Tomb  of 
Dead  King*s  Slaughtered  Retinue 

PHILADELPHIA,  Jan.  21.  (JP)—A  mammoth  death-pit  in  which  th« 
bodies  of  forty-five  victims,  sacrificed  In  accordance  with  ancient  Su- 
merlan  burial  rites,  were  found  amid  an  amazing  wealth  jf  gold,  siher 
and  semiprecious  stones  has  'mi.m'  discovered  in  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  home 
of  Abraham,  by  the  joint  archeological  expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  Museum  and  the  Briti£h..TVAi'co,iTr.  h  x,,--  announced  today 
The  death-pit  V  '  (Continued  from  ^^^-.^^trave-  very  large  copper 
,  „'  v,5,d  been  placed  m  the  S^^iv  ^^^^  ^^. 
5?  ?arth  had  been  heaped  abo.e^.  ^Another 
F^pm  and  stamped  down  and  mats  ,^^  ^^ 
^f.^'ovSr  the  top.    Fol  owmg  that  ^^ 


found  heretofori 
old  cemetery  at 
has  been  only  p; 
ready  has  yielde 
head-dresses, , 
wreaths  and  hair 
ver  combs  and  otl 
cording  to  a  repc 
ard  Woolle]',  dire 
dition. 

HAEPS  AN 

Three  harps  of 
Id  a  pair  of  stati 
are.  made  of  gold.  :  1  "Jony-Sve- bodies, ^o.  -—  "    The'-haa  "de~cor"at^ 


It^Ton  had/een  dn^^^^  f^^^.M   clearing  A^ 
bSTlafer'arinnJ^^  tl^'SS^^^ 

It'r'g^dy-     r.  than  a  week  we  have  >ng  since  disap- 
"For  more  than  a  vv  ^^^^ 

b«n  at  ^vorkcleYlg^«;,\;  covered  DRIVER 
inches  or  "wre  oi  so^^  ^^^  ^  ^^^^^  impression  lay 
Three  harns  of  r^^^  ^°°^  ^i  cVm  remains  to  be  ex-  o  asses  and  a 
and  a  pair  of  statu  of  the  space  st  U  jn^^  have  listed  he  bones  could 
Se^'ma^de  o?Vc$5"  TSlVe'^todfel,  o?  wWch  at  le^t  liver  and  lapis- 
and  lapis-laj^li  a  I^'^-lfnine  are  of  women.  The  had  decorated 
These  statues  were  i  ^^'S'^oind  with  them  are  aston-  i  such  a  wagon 
nf  thP  n.n<:f  ^n«,o^    Tlches  founo  wit  ji-ave  of  a  king 

1  ^^^^\,..  x.i..o>^  grave  last  year  we 


'^'•'in 'the  Kirig's 
found    "ine   court 


ladies    wear«ng 
and     semi- 


further     we 
of  other  ani- 


of  the  most  remar  '  ^^^^^^ 
I  antiquity    that    SuS 

:^7n"re'porting  the  1  i  I^^fd^'^Ses '^  gold  ""  and  semi-  of  other  ani- 
death-pit  Mr.  Woolll  ^^'ttom  s' oi  es  Here  th.rj.  f;^^  ^^;P-  a  collection 
pit  should  be  the  1  ^^'^Srihlrty-four  such  and  for  the  weapons  and 
an  actual  tomb  and    1  "^^^ ^rt  thtv  are  far  niore/P^'j' 

lers  now  were  dlggl  "^°^%^f  Le  b^^^'^  ^^^  ^^i^,  ^^!f  Vu^^^'li^-  J^* 
'the  modern  surfaci  \tt'JS\eW  the  headdress  ofind  the  ofler- 
finding  a  tomb  benei  \  gj^  shub-Ad  herseU."  3^  p^,^^^  ^ 


DUBING  Wn  CENTURY:   ARABIA 


739 


Nituk  was  called  Lakhamun  (by  dissimilation  from  Lakha- 
mum),  Erua,  Zag-gi-si,  and  Telam,  while  the  god  Nebo  was 
called  En-zag  (abbreviated  for  En-zag-gi-si,  —  /.  e.,  "  lord  of 
the  goddess  Lakhamu"),  Muat  Izuzu,  Dul-azagga  (gener- 
ally =  Shamash,  "  Sun  "),  etc.,  names  partly  of  Sumerian 
and  partly  of  Arabian  origin.  In  fact  an  inscription  found 
on  the  island  of  Samak  mentions  the  "  Palace  of  Rimum, 
servant  of  the  god    Inzag."      Furthermore  we  know  that 


Granite  Range  of  Jebel  Shammar  (Effect  of  Mirage) 
(J«  the  background  the  mountains  Aja  and  Selma,  "  the  gate  of  ancestors  "  of  the  inscriptions 

of  Gudea) 

Naram-Sin  of  Akkad  (about  3 700  b.  c.)  took  from  Magan, 
along  with  other  booty,  an  alabaster  vase,  and  that  the 
kings  of  Ur  (c.  2500  b.  c.)  had  a  great  deal  of  intercourse 
with  Ki-mash  (see  above)  and  Sabum  (Seba  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment) in  Central  Arabia.  As  above  stated,  about  2200  b. 
c.  an  Arabian  dynasty  succeeded  in  gaining  supremacy  over 
Northern  Babylonia.  Later,  under  the  sixth  king  of  this 
dynasty,  Khammurabi  (or,  more  exactly,  *Ammu-rabi,  the 
Biblical   Amraphel),    the  contemporary  of  Abraham,  their 


740  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

sway  extended  over  the  whole  of  Babylonia.  In  accord- 
ance with  this  is  the  fact  that  under  this  dynasty  an  "  Isi- 
manean  "  is  mentioned  (comp.  the  Arabic  tribal  name  Mar- 
Simani  under  Sargon  of  Assyria),  and  the  importation  of 
palms  and  cassia  from  the  wooded  mountains  of  Yadi'a-ab 
(comp.  the  land  of  Yada'u  in  the  inscriptions  of  Esarhaddon) 
and  from  Guti  is  referred  to. 

Finally,  in  the  Assyrian  royal  inscriptions  of  the  8th  and 
7th  centuries  Arabia  is  spoken  of,  and  here  far  more  in  de- 
tail. For  our  present  purpose  it  may  suffice  to  give  a  very 
brief  synopsis  of  the  more  important  points  :  — 

Tiglathpileser  III.  :  738  b.  c,  tribute  from  Zabibi,  queen 
of  Aribi  (Jof ) ;  733  b.  c,  campaign  against  Samsi,  queen 
of  Aribi  (the  Biblical  Jareb,  Hos.  5  :  13  ;  10  :  6);  tribute 
from  the  Sab'eans  (suD,  Seba),  Mas'eans,  Taimeans  (Taima), 
Sab'eans  (s^a;,  Saba  =  Sheba),  Khayappeans  ('Ephah  of  the 
Old  Testament),  Badaneans  (comp.  the  modern  Badan  in 
Northern  Midian),  Khattieans,  and  Idiba'ileans  (Adbe'el). 
To  the  latter  is  intrusted  the  protection  of  the  northern 
boundary  of  the  land  of  Midian  (Musri,  different  from 
Musri  =  Egypt). 

Sargon:  715  b.  c,  rebellion  and  defeat  of  the  tribes 
Tamud,  Ibadid,  Mar-Simani  (compare  Isimanai  above),  and 
Khayappa.  Tribute  from  King  Pir'u  of  Musur  (Midian), 
Queen  Samsi  of  Aribi,  and  from  It'i-amra  (a  name  appear- 
ing as  Yith'iamara  in  the  South  Arabian  inscriptions,  comp. 
Hebrew  Yish'i)  of  Saba',  namely,  gold,  trankincense,  precious 
stones,  ivory  (pointing  to  commercial  intercourse  between 
Arabia  and  East  Africa),  different  spices,  and  horses  (the 
latter  from  Musur  =  Midian). 

Esarhaddon  (680-668  b.  c):  Khaza'ilu,  King  of  Aribi 
(capital  Adumu)  dethroned,  in  his  place  a  queen  Tabu'aand 
Yailu,  son  of  Khaza'ilu  (comp.  the  proper  name  Ya'u-ilu 
found  in  texts  of  the  time  oP  the  Hammurabi  dynasty). 
Campaign   against  the  country  of  Bazu  in   Central  Arabia 


DURING   19TII  CENTURY.    ARABIA  741 

(=  Buz  of  the  Old  Testament),  in  connection  with  which 
the  country  of  KhazCi  (=  Khazo  of  the  Old  Testament'), 
and  the  places  Ilpiati  (Ptolemy's  .Olaphia),  Dikhran  (the 
Dacharenians  of  Ptolemy),  Qataba'a,  Gauan  (comp.  Guti 
above),  Ikhilu,  Yadi'u  (comp.  above),  and  others  —  all  sit- 
uated in  Yemama  and  neighborhood  —  are  mentioned. 

Ashurbanapal  :  Campaign  against  the  Arab  tribes  Kedar 
(Qidrai)  and  Nebaioth  (Nabayati)  —  which  took  "the  great 
king  "  at  least  into  the  North  Arabian  Jof.  The  land  of 
Mash  there  mentioned  and  also  playing  an  important  role  in 
connection  with  Nimrod's  journey  across  Arabia,  extended 
beyond  the  Jof,  a  fact  which  was  clearly  demonstrated  by 
Ed.  Glaser  in  his  sketch  of  the  "  Geography  of  Arabia  " 
(pp.  309,  seqq.).  To  Glaser  also  belongs  the  credit  of  first 
having  recognized  the  true  location  of  Bazu  (=  Biiz). 


Ill 

The  numerous  data  given  in  the  Old  Testament  concern- 
ing the  names  of  countries  and  tribes  in  Arabia  are  rather 
general ;  but  the  statements  contained  in  the  South  Arabian 
and  the  Babylono-Assyrian  inscriptions  put  those  of  the 
Old  Testament  in  an  entirely  new  light.  Indeed  from  a 
study  of  the  oldest  West-Semitic  proper  names  ^  and  the 
conceptions  of  God,  it  becomes  now  evident  that  even  the 
origin  of  the  children  of  Israel  is  much  more  closely  con- 
nected with  North  Arabia  than  we  have  hitherto  ventured  to 
suppose,  that  therefore  the  knowledge  of  Arabia,  as  derived 
from  inscriptions  and  from  the  archaeological  exploration  of 
the  country,  has  a  more  direct  and  important  bearing  upon 
Biblical  science  than  the  knowledge  of  Egypt  and  Assyria. 

First,  considering  the  genealogies  as  given  in   the  tenth 

^   Engl.  Version  :    Hazo. 

'•^  For  a  full  treatment  of  tMs  subject  see  chap.  iii.  of  my  "Ancient  Hebrew 
Tradition,"  pp.   56—117. 


742  EXPLORATIOSS   IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

chapter  of  Genesis  and  similar  passages  (Gen.  22  :  20,  seq(^. 
and  25  :  i,  seq.  and  12,  seq.),  it  is  remarkable  to  see  what  a 
close  kinship  between  Hebrew  and  Arab  is  indicated  by- 
Hebrew  tradition,  —  a  kinship  second  only  to  that  existing 
between  the  former  and  Amnion,  Moab  and  the  really  half 
Arabian  Edom.  Edom,  it  is  true,  was  regarded  as  the  twin 
brother  of  Jacob,  but  Ishmael,  the  father  of  twelve  x^rab 
tribes  (Gen.  25  :  13—15),  was  at  least  the  half  brother  of 
Isaac.  And  there  are  others,  among  them  the  Midianites 
(prominent  in  the  stories  of  Joseph  and  Moses  and  in  the 
Book  of  Judges),  who  are  mentioned  as  half  brothers  of 
Isaac  and  Ishmael ;  even  the  Joktanides  (Gen.  10  :  iSySeqtj.), 
living  farther  awav,  are  connected  at  least  with  Eber,  the 
pre-Abrahamic  ancestor  of  the  Hebrews.  Besides  the  re- 
ferences to  them  in  the  inscriptions,  numerous  passages  in 
the  prophetic  literature  throw  valuable  light  upon  many  of 
these  names  (see  especially  Is.  21  ;   Ezek.  27,  etc.). 

Further  light  upon  the  part  played  by  Arabia  in  the  Old 
Testament  comes  from  the  fact,  now  well  established,  that 
the  oft-mentioned  Kush,  or  rather  Kosh,  means  Ethiopia 
only  in  2  Kings  19  :  9  (=  Is.  37  :  9)  and  perhaps  in  Is.  1 1  : 
II,  Nah.  3  :  9  and  Jer.  46  :  9,  —  while  in  all  other  pas- 
sages, beginning  with  the  story  of  Eden  and  the  table  of 
nations  (Gen.  to),  it  means  Arabia,  especially  the  district 
around  the  Jebel  Shammar  (Havil).  Kosh,  arisen  from 
Kevosh,  is  identical  with  the  Babylonian  Kivash  (written 
Kimash).  The  Gihon  is  a  wadi  of  Arabia  (Kosh),  as  Nim- 
rod  is  a  son  of  Arabia  (see  his  above-mentioned  journey 
through  Arabia  in  the  Babylonian  epos),  as  Zerah  (2  Chron. 
14)  is  an  Arab  shaikh  (comp.  the  camels  mentioned  in 
verse  14^),  and  the  wife  of  Moses,  whether  Zipporah  (Ex. 
2  :  21)  or  perhaps  another  (Num.  12  :  i),  is  an  Arab  woman. 
"  The  Sabeans  [in  Central  Arabia],  men  of  stature  "  (Is.  45  : 
14)  and  "  the  nation  tall  and  smooth  "  (Is.  18:1,  seq.)  "  be- 

^  Hebrew  text;  in  English  version  v.   15.  — The  Editor. 


DURING   19TII   CENTURY:   ARABIA  743 

yond  the  rivers  of  Kush  "  (/.  e.y  the  rivers  of  Eden),  are  one 
and  the  same  ;  also  in  Is.  20  the  reference  is  merely  to 
Arabia  as  being  in  league  with  Musur=  Midian/  For  there 
is  no  doubt  that  the  present  text  of  the  Old  Testament  in 
the  passages  referring  originally  to  Musur  {i.  e.,  Ma'an  = 
Musran  of  the  South  Arabian  inscriptions)  erroneously  now 
offers  rather  Misrayim  (=  Egypt),  e.  g.,  Is.  45  :  14  and  also 
Ps.  68  :  31,  etc. 

Another  name,  hitherto  mistaken,  of  a  district  in  Arabia 
is  Ashur  (abbreviated  Shur,  hence  the  desert  of  Shur,  north 
and  east  of  the  Sinaitic  peninsula,  and  possibly  also  Geshur 
—  /.  e.y  Ge-shur,  "lowland  of  Shur  "),  in  the  South  Arabian 
inscriptions  A'shur  (north  of  Midian),  mentioned  by  the  side 
of  "'Ibr  of  the  river,"  just  as  in  the  prophecy  of  Balaam 
(Num.  24  :  24)  Ashur  is  found  with  'Eber,  and  probably 
also  originally  in  Job  S  '•  S^  '^^  Ashiar  mows  (the  harvest), 
'Eber  eats  it."  ^  The  most  interesting  of  these  passages  is 
without  doubt  Gen.  2  :  14,  in  which  the  third  one  of  the 
rivers  of  Eden  ^  is  named  Khadd  Deqel  (Engl.  Version 
Hiddekel)  —  /.  e.,  the  wadi  of  Diqlah  (Gen.  10  :  27), 
"  which  goeth  in  front  of  Ashur."  The  confusion  with  the 
Tigris  (Dan.  10  :  4)  and  Ashur  (  =  Assyria)  did  not  arise 
until  later.  For  details  see  my  book  "  The  Ancient  He- 
brew Tradition,"  pp.  235,  seqq.  and  pp.  313,  seqg. 

The  northeast  part  of  Arabia  (the  modern  Bahrain),  bor- 
dering on  Babylonia,  was  called  by  the  Babylonians  "  Sea- 
country"  or  Ka/du  (Chaldea).  In  the  Assyrian  period  it 
was  called  Bit-Takin,  after  the  reigning  dynasty  to  which 
Nebuchadrezzar  belonged.  From  the  southern  part  of  this 
country,  according  to  ancient  tradition,  the  Phenicians  had 

1  See  mv  article  "Assyria"  in  Hastings'  "Dictionary  of  the  Bible," 
written  before  Winckler  treated  the  same  subject. 

^  Comp.  Hommel  in  the  "  Expository  Times,"  x.,  p.  283. 

3  The  first,  Pishon,  is  the  Wadi  ed-Dawasir  ;  the  second,  Gihon,  is  the 
Wadi  er-Rumma,  as  Ed.  Glaser  has  proved. 


744  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

emigrated  to  Palestine ;  the  northern  part  with  its  capital 
Ur,  the  ancient  sacred  city  of  the  moon,  was  the  home  of 
the  family  of  the  patriarch  Abraham,  and  therefore  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  and  of  many  Arab  tribes.  On  the  whole 
it  appears  that  East  xA.rabia  was  the  original  home  of  all 
the  Western  Semites,  especially  also  of  the  Arameans.  In 
Abraham's  time  the  latter  were  still  a  part  of  the  Arab  race  ; 


E^^-g^JJ^^^V^-  - '  1,11,11,,  — ■..  —  ■-■iiiii.ii-i.i—ii-Mp—.M 

Inside  of  Harbor  of  Maskat  with  Castle  at  Entrance 

in  fact  even   the  patriarch  Jacob,  ot   Biblical   tradition,  w^as 
regarded  simply  as  an  Aramean  (Deut.  26  :  5). 

This  fact  is  directly  confirmed  bv  the  complete  uniform- 
ity in  the  formation  of  proper  names  consisting  of  two  ele- 
ments as  found  in  the  South  Arabian  inscriptions  as  well  as 
in  use  among  the  Hebrews  and  Arameans.  Those  of  the 
Babylonians,  on  the  other  side,  are  different,  showing  more 
polytheistic  features.  Between  these  two  groups  stand  the 
proper  names  of  the  Canaanites  (Phenicians  included),  which 


DURING  lO'i-n  CENTURY:   ARABIA  745 

in  consequence  of  Babylonian  supremacy  lasting  for  centu- 
ries (before  and  after  2000  b.  c.)  are  interspersed  with  many 
Babylonian  elements.  Most  of  these  names  are  com- 
pounded with  ilu,  "  god ;  "  abu,  "  father  ;  "  'ammu,  "  father's 
brother"  (  =  protector,  guardian);  sometimes  also  with  ^^z 
or  Ta  (name  of  a  god).  Comp.  Abi-melek,  "  my  father  is 
king;"  'Ammi-el,  "my  protector  is  god;"  Eli-'ezer,  "my 
god  is  helper;"  Yishma'-el,  "God  hears;"  Ai-kalab  or 
Ya-kalab,  "  Ya  is  priest."  In  those  names  which  are  espe- 
cially Canaanite  we  find  also  ba'al,  "lord"  (Babyl.  belu), 
and  adon,  "  lord,"  pointing,  however,  already  to  Babylonian 
influence. 

It  has  already  been  remarked,  in  Part  II.,  that  the  genu- 
ine Babylonians  preferred  sun-worship,  while  among  the 
primitive  Arabs  moon-worship  prevailed,  the  sun  (as  wife 
of  the  Moon-god)  being  of  minor  importance.  Especially 
in  Ur  the  Moon-god  was  worshipped  under  a  system  almost 
monotheistic,  as  is  shown  by  the  oft-translated  hymn  in 
"  Inscriptions  of  Western  Asia,"  vol.  iv.,  plate  9.  The 
moon  was  lord  of  the  heavenly  hosts,  —  /.  ^.,  of  the  stars, — 
the  "  father "  {abu)  and  god  par  excellence  ;  that  he  was 
also  called  ^ammu  is  proved  by  the  name  for  the  Moon-god 
among  the  Qatabanians  ^  in  South  Arabia  (see  'Atnm  in  Part 
II.).  There  is  of  course  a  very  close  connection  between 
this  and  the  use  of  ilu,  abu,  and  ^amniu  in  the  old  proper 
names  among  the  Western  Semites.  Abraham's  family  it- 
self was  devoted  to  this  moon-worship,  as  is  shown  even 
bv  Hebrew  tradition  (see  Joshua  24  :  2),  although  Abraham 
and  the  other  patriarchs  had  doubtless  already  embraced  a 
purer  monotheism,  so  that  probably  the  orb  of  the  moon 
shining  at  night  was  to  them  merely  a  symbol  of  the  one 
true  god,  and  not  the  real  image  of  God  himself.  The 
name  A^\  or  Ya,  which  was  occasionally  used  alongside  of  ilu 

1  They  are  even  called  IValad  'Amm,  "  Sons  of  'Amm,"  just  as  in  the  Old 
Testament  the  Ammonites  are  always  called  Bene  ^ Amman. 


746  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

(comp.  Ai-'ezer/  Yo-chebed '),  meant  originally  "  moon." 
Moses  first  gave  this  ancient  name  a  new  significance  by 
changing  it,  in  the  spirit  of  popular  etymology,  to  Yahve, 
"  he  who  exists,"  (by  the  way,  another  purely  Arabico- 
Aramaic  formation,  which  in  Hebraeo  -  Canaanite  would 
rather  be  Yihve),  thus  freeing  it  from  every  trace  of  poly- 
theism. But  not  unfrequently  the  memory  of  the  former 
Arabian  moon-worship  in  the  family  of  Terah  was  revived 
among  the  children  of  Israel,  as  is  shown  by  the  golden  calf 
(comp.  "young  bull"  as  an  appellation  of  the  Moon-god), 
also  by  the  name,  purposely  avoided  in  the  Pentateuch, 
Yahve  Zebaoth  (Lord  of  the  heavenly  hosts),  by  the  litur- 
gical formula  Hallelu-Yah  (from  /iiial=new  moon),  etc. 
Even  the  fact  that  Terah  emigrated  from  Ur,  one  centre  of 
the  moon-worship,  to  Haran,  the  other  centre  of  the  same 
worship  among  the  western  Semites,  is  to  be  judged  accord- 
ingly," likewise  the  other  fact  that  the  "  mountain  of  the 
moon"  (  =  Sinai)  was  the  very  place  chosen  by  Moses  for 
transmitting  to  the  children  of  Israel  the  law  revealed  to 
him  by  God  ;  from  the  earliest  times  this  had  been  a  holy- 
mountain,  a  "  mountain  of  God  "  (Ex.  3:1). 

Finally,  the  holv  "  name  "  of  the  Moon-god,  from  fear 
often  only  hinted  at  without  being  pronounced,  is  signified 
in  the  numerous  personal  proper  names  beginning  with 
sumu-hu,  "  his  name."  Such  proper  names  occur  among  the 
inhabitants  of  South  Arabia,  especially  the  Mineans,  as  well 
as  among  the  Arabians  mentioned  in  the  Babylonian  con- 
tract tablets  dating  from  the  time  of  Abraham,  —  e.  g., 
Sumu-atar,  "His  name  is  glorious"  (South  Arabian  Sumu- 
hu-watar).  Compare  Hebrew  Shemida'  (corresponding  to 
Sumuhu-jada')  and  Shemu-el?     There  is  an  exact  parallel  to 

1  In  the  English  V'ersion  Jeezer  or  lezer  and  Jochebed,  comp.  Num.  26  : 
30,  59.  — The  Editor. 

"^  See  my  Semitische  rolker  und  Sprachen,  vol.  i.,  p.  487,  annotation,  and 
my  Geschichte  Babyloniens  und  Jssyriens,  p.  215,  annotation. 

2  See  Hommel,  "  The  Ancient  Hebrew  Tradition,"  p.  99. 


DUBIXG   rjTU  CENTURY:   ARABIA  747 

this  in  the  hoHness  of  the  "name  Yahve  "  among  the  He- 
brews and  of  the  name  of  the  god  Ya  among  the  Babyloni- 
ans, who  adopted  this  adoration  from  the  Arabians  of  Ur. 
It  may  now  be  regarded  as  certain  that  this  surname  for  the 
god  of  the  earth  and  sea,  viz.,  Ea,  or  rather  Ya,  is  only 
secondary,  originally  meaning  rather"  moon."  No  less  cer- 
tain is  it  that  in  ancient  times  the  Semitic  moon-worship  was 
universal  in  Arabia,  and  that  this  country  was  its  real  home.^ 
How  vivid,  especiallv  in  Edom  and  the  country  east  of 
the  Jordan,  were  the  reminiscences  of  a  former  and  far  closer 
connection  between  the  Arab  tribes  extending  from  the 
banks  of  the  Euphrates  through  Central  Arabia  to  the 
Jordan,  is  seen  in  the  Book  of  Job,  which  in  this  respect  is 
unique  among  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  which 
Professor  Sayce  regards  as  really  a  Hebrew  adaptation  of  a 
remnant  of  Edomite  literature.  Its  historic  background,  at 
all  events,  is  pictured  with  such  remarkable  fidelity  as  would 
have  been  impossible  to  invent  in  the  later  period  of  the 
Exile.  Three  kings  (according  to  the  Septuagint)  appear 
there  as  friends  of  the  powerful  Edomite  chief  Job  -'  of  the 
land  of  '  Us  :  Eliphaz  from  Teman  (between  Edom  and 
Midian),  Bildad  (Bir-Dadda)  from  Shukh  (on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Euphrates,  north  of  the  Kaldu  district),  and  Zophar 
from  Ma'an.^     There  is  present  a  fourth  person,  Elihu  from 

^  This  subject  is  discussed  bv  Hommel  in  "  The  Ancient  Hebrew  Tradi- 
tion," pp.  65,  se^.  (Ea  and  Sin  svnonvms),  and  in  "The  Expository 
Times,"  Oct.,  1898  (Ea  the  same  name  as  Ya,  the  basis  for  the  Mosaic 
name  Yahve).  Comp.  G.  Margoliouth,  "The  Earliest  Religion  of  the 
Ancient  Hebrews:  A  New  Theory,"  in  "The  Contemporary  Review," 
Oct.,  1898  (the  names  of  Ea  and  Yahve  identical,  and  the  next  significant 
step,  Yahve  also  originallv  Moon-god);  and  finally  the  reader  is  referred  to 
Hommel' s  article  in  "The  Expository  Times,"  Dec,  1898  ("Yahve,  Ea, 
and  Sin  "),  now  supplemented  and  confirmed  by  the  above  statements. 

^  Comp.  the  name  Avab  on  one  of  the  Tell  el-*Amarna  tablets  (Hommel, 
"The  Ancient  Hebrew  Tradition,"  p.  261). 

^  The  Septuagint  read  Mu'aios. 


748  EXrLORATIONS   IN   JilHLE  LANDS 

Buz,  for  which  country  see  above  in  connection  with  Esar- 
haddon,  p.  740.  The  robbers  invading  'Us  are  Saba' 
(Sheba)  and  Chaldeans  ;  the  former,  according  to  the  South 
Arabian  inscriptions,  in  the  Minean  period  were  still  Bed- 
ouins, and  with  the  Havileans  attacked  the  Minean  caravans, 
while  the  Chaldean  robbers  were  from  the  vicinity  of  Ur- 
Kasdim/  Along  with  the  rarely  used  name  Yahve  we 
commonly  find  Shaddai  (from  Shadu  Ai  -) ;  but  the  most 
common  name  for  God  is  Eloah,  whence,  by  analogy  with 
Elonim,  the  Canaanite  plural  of  majesty,  the  ordinary 
Hebrew  form  Elohim  arose.  As  in  the  prophecy  of  Balaam, 
Ashur  and  'Eber  are  mentioned  as  neighbors  of  Edom 
(Job  5  :  5,  see  above,  p.  743),  and  the  robber  caravans  from 
Tema  and  Saba'  (Sheba)  we  meet  in  Job  6  :  19.  Star-wor- 
ship (see  especially  31  :  26)  is  still  universal  in  the  region 
around  Job's  place ;  and  the  gold  of  Ophir  (like  Magan, 
designation  of  East  Arabia)^  and  the  precious  stones  of 
Arabia  are  often  spoken  of  as  familiar  things.  Especially 
interesting  is  the  passage.  Job  29  :  18,  where  Khol,''  the 
incense-bearing  messenger  of  the  gods,  appears  in  the 
familiar  role  of  the  Phoenix,  being  burned  amid  the  smoke 
of  incense  and  rising  again  from  his  ashes.  Thus  the  Book 
of  Job  forms  the  chief  source  of  evidence  as  to  the  au- 
thenticity (so  strikingly  confirmed  by  the  inscriptions  and 
proper  names)  of  Hebrew  tradition  concerning  the  East 
Arabian  origin  of  the  children  of  Israel  and  concerning  the 
otherwise  close  relationship  between  the  Hebrews  and  Arabs. 
Not  until  the  time  of  Joshua  did  the  former  exchange  their 

1   Comp.  the  variant  HiiviUm  to  be  inferred  from  the  Septuagint. 

-  This  etvmologv  seems  rather  doubtful.  —  The  Editor. 

3  Comp.  Apir  situated  opposite  on  the  Persian  coast,  which  Rawlinson  has 
already  associated  with  Ophir. 

*  In  the  Hebrew  Text.  The  English  Version  translates  "the  sand." 
There  was  a  god  of  the  same  name  in  Hadhramot.  Compare  Part  II., 
above. 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  ARABIA 


749 


ancient  Arabico-Aramaic  dialect  for  the  language  of  Canaan, 
their  new  home.  That  this  change  was  not  effected  sooner, 
in  the  time  when  the  patriarchs  dwelt  at  Bethel,  is  indis- 
putably proved  by  the  name  Yahveh,  which,  as  stated  above, 
was  first  coined  by  Moses. 

In  conclusion  attention  is  directed  to  a  number  of  other 
important  results  furnished  bv  Arabic  epigraphv  that  con- 


r<D' 


)(>|o|ftYx>.<^llXhnirt1 
"    J))nfH^hlKOIH-I^XXmlYXt 

jrM6l^B)hriiinith^lH(ifi^h^MHf 


Minean  Inscription  from  El-'Ola  (Midian) 

(^mentioning  tivo  ivomen  Le'vites) 

tribute  materially  to  a  right  understanding  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. 

As  bearing  on  the  priestlv  character  of  the  tribe  of  Levi 
from  Moses  onward  (and  the  more  so  because  of  the  rela- 
tionship of  Moses  to  Jethro,  priest  of  Midian),  it  is  a  cir- 
cumstance of  the  utmost  significance  that  in  the  Minean 
inscriptions  found  in  the  land  of  Midian  (El-'Ola)  priests 
and  priestesses  of  the  god  Wadd  are  designated  by 
the  term  /awi\  fem.  lawTat  (sib  and  nsib)-  Even  in  the 
Hebrew  "  Priestly  Law"  there  is  an  intimation  of  women 
Levites  (priestesses)  in  the  passage,  Ex.  38:8,  where  men- 
tion is  made  of  the  "  brass  mirrors  of  the  serving  women 
which  served   at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting."      In  i 

Sam.  1  :  22,  these  women  are  again   mentioned,  but  there- 
55 


750  EXi'LORATIONlS   IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

after,  owing  to  the  excesses  by  the  sons  of  Kli,  the  whole 
institution  of  women  Levites  was  evidently  aboHshed.  That 
the  Minean,  or  perhaps  indeed  more  especially  the  Midian- 
ite  word  lawi\  and  the  Hebrew  word  levi  (temple  servant) 
were  originally  identical  has  without  reason  been  doubted 
by  Schwallv  and  others. 

Indeed  as  regards  the  cult  we  find  the  most  remarkable 
analogies  between  the  inscriptions  of  Southern  Arabia  and 
the  ancient  Hebrew  ceremonial  laws,  as  is  shown,  e.  g.,  by 
such  words  as  mabsal  (or  mubassil)^  "  the  holy  place  "  (liter- 
ally, the  place  where  the  meat  offered  in  sacrifice  was  boiled ; 
comp.  Ezek.  46  :  23,  fem.  mebashshelbth)  \  khattaat^  "sin- 
offering,"^  and  maslam^  "altar  of  incense"  (literally,  the 
place  of  the  shelem  or  peace-offering,  comp.  Lev.  7:11,  seqq.^ 
etc.).  The  fact  also  that  sexual  defilement  on  the  third  day 
of  the  feast  was  by  the  inhabitants  of  Harim  considered  an 
especially  grievous  offence  finds  an  instructive  parallel  in 
Ex.  19:15. 

Even  the  Minean  inscriptions  abound  in  expressions  for 
sacred  vessels,  etc.,  quite  in  harmonv  with  the  rich  cult  pre- 
scribed by  Moses,  and  as  he  no  doubt  dailv  saw  it  with 
Jethro  in  Midian.  A  fine  example  is  afforded  by  the  word 
makanat,  used  to  designate  a  kind  of  framework  for  sup- 
porting the  lavers,  ornamented  with  sphinxes  and  palms. 
The  corresponding  word  in  the  Mosaic  law  is  ken,  but  in 
describing  the  building  of  the  temple,  i  Kings  7,  the  word 
mek'onah  is  used." 

Finally,  the  proof  recently  furnished  through  Glaser's 
inscriptions  of  the  existence  of  a  Minean  goddess  named 
Athirat,  the  wife  of  the  Moon-god  Wadd,''  throws  a  signifi- 
cant light  on  the  Canaanite  goddess  Asherah  so  often  men- 
tioned in  the  Old  Testament. 

^  Comp.  Hommel,  "The  Ancient  Hebrew  Tradition,"  pp.  321,  seq. 

^  Comp.  Hommel,  Aufsatze  und  Abhandlunge7i,  ii.,  pp.   222-229. 

'  Comp.  Hommel,  Aufsdtze  und  Abhandlungefi,   ii.,   pp.    206-213    and 
269,  seq. 


DURING  19TII   CENTURY:   ARABIA  751 

Another  Arabian  god  known  from  proper  names  as  early 
as  2000  years  before  Christ  '  was  called  Basht  (commonly 
pronounced  Besa).  Originally  this  was  probably  only  a  sur- 
name of  the  deified  Gilgamesh-Nimrod  ;  but  what  strikes 
us  as  most  remarkable  is  the  fact  that  the  name  is  also  found 
in  Palestine  during  the  time  of  the  Judges,  as  a  part  of 
compound  proper  names,  as,  e.  g.^  in  Ish-Bosheth  (Chron., 
Ish-Ba'al,'"^  where  Ba'al  is  substituted  for  the  then  unintelli- 
gible Bosheth),  and  others. 

There  are  still  many  other  obscure  expressions  in  the 
Old  Testament  that  new  inscriptions  and  discoveries  will  yet 
serve  to  make  plain.  For  the  districts  still  unexplored  in 
Arabia  by  European  travellers  are  numerous,  and  system- 
atic excavations  in  the  ancient  ruins  have  never  yet  been 
undertaken.  It  will  require  the  united  efforts  of  fearless 
and  enthusiastic  representatives  of  all  the  interested  nations 
to  secure  those  priceless  inscriptions  and  antiquities  of  the 
interior  of  South  Arabia  which  for  centuries  have  been 
known  only  to  the  roving  and  distrustful  sons  of  the  desert. 

The  queen  of  Sheba  proved  Solomon  with  hard  questions, 
all  of  which  in  his  wisdom  he  answered  her.  Now  we  who 
study  the  Old  Testament,  reversing  the  process,  go  to  the 
wonderland  of  that  queen  with  a  multitude  of  inquiries,  to 
many  of  which  it  has  already  given  us  a  satisfactory  reply. 
For  the  fact  that  we  now  have  such  comparatively  clear 
views  on  all  these  points  is  due  chiefly  to  the  results  of 
epigraphical  researches  in  Arabia  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Were  it  not  for  our  knowledge  of  the  proper  names 
and  of  the  different  kinds  of  worship  in  South  Arabia,  and 
of  the  Minean  kingdom  extending  as  far  as  Midian  and 
Edom,  it  is  not  likely  that  any  light  would  ever  have  been 
shed  upon  the  Arabian  origin  of  the  earliest  Hebrew  proper 
names  and  of  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon   ruling  at  the 

^  Comp.  Hommel,  Aufsi'itxe  und  Abhandlungen,  ii.,  p.  216. 
^  The  English  Version  reads  Eshbaal. 


752  EXPLORATION  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

time  of  Abraham,  And  our  understanding  of  the  worship 
of  the  Moon-god,  in  the  family  of  Terah,  so  important  for 
the  history  of  Hebrew  rehgion,  could  scarcely  ever  have 
become  so  exact  as  at  present,  were  it  not  for  the  discovery 
of  the  many  South  Arabian  inscriptions  by  the  two  intrepid 
and  successful  explorers  Halevy  and  Glasen 


THE    SO-CALLED    HITTITES 

AND    THEIR    INSCRIPTIONS 


4'. 


^Zc^f^ 


THE   SO-CALLED   HITTITES 
INSCRIPTIONS 


AND  THEIR 


W^^..M^"i4 


||#^^:.'^^ 


BY     PROFESSOR     P.    JENSEN,     PH.     D. 

In  Book  II,  io6,  Herodotus,  the  father  of  history,  tells 
us  of  two  figures  of  the  Egyptian  king  Sesostris  which  stand, 

one  on  the  road  from 
Sardis  to  Smyrna,  the 
other  on  the  road  be- 
tween E  p  h  e  s  u  s  and 
Phocea,  carved  on  the 
rocks  and  bearing  an 
inscription  running 
across  the  breast  from 
shoulder  to  shoulder. 
This  inscription  means, 
he  is  further  able  to  in- 
form us,  "With  my 
shoulders  did  I  win  (ac- 


Jim 


Hittite  Inscription  from  Hamath 


quire)  this  land."  In  1839  what  we  may  presume  to  be  one 
of  these  was  discovered  by  Renouard,  while  in  1856  Beddoe 
found  another  like  it  in  the  neighborhood,  approximately 
on  a  straight  line  drawn  from  Smyrna  to  Sart  (Sardis),  about 
twenty-five  English  miles  east  of  Smyrna,  south  of  Nimfi  in 
the  pass  of  Karabel.  Upon  the  first  named  of  these  fig- 
ures faint  traces  of  an  inscription  are  still  to  be  recognized, 
though  this,  contrary  to  what  Herodotus  tells  us,  is  cer- 
tainly not  Egyptian. 

Before  this  time,  in  the  year  1736,  Otter  had  found  at 
Ivriz,  west  of  the  Taurus,  inscriptions  in  hieroglyphic 
characters,  also  non-Egyptian  ;  in  18 12,  still  further  to  the 


766  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

east,  in  Hamath  in  Syria,  the  Hama  of  to-day,  Burckhardt 
found  an  inscription  likewise  hieroglyphic,  which  he  took 
to  be  non-Egyptian  ;  in  1834,  in  the  northern  part  of  Asia 
Minor,  north  of  the  lower  course  of  the  Halys  or  Kyzylir- 
mak,  at  Boghazkoi,  Texier  found  figures  of  gods  accom- 
panied by  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  not  of  Egyptian  type  ; 
while  in  i  851,  as  far  to  the  east  as  Nineveh,  Layard  found 
seals  which  were  stamped  with  non-Egyptian  hieroglyphs. 

These  discoveries  could  of  course  awaken  no  particular 
interest  until  some  one  who  knew  them  all  should  bring 
them  into  relation  with  each  other  and  conceive  the  idea 
that  one  and  all  belonged  to  the  selfsame  category.  The 
great  distance  between  the  places  of  discovery  gives  a  satis- 
factory explanation  for  the  length  of  time  which  elapsed 
before  this  conclusion  was  reached.  Who  was  there  equally 
at  home  in  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Assyria  ? 

In  1872  the  situation  was  changed,  for  in  that  year  Burton 
in  his  "  Unexplored  Syria  "  published  a  first  though  not  very 
accurate  copy  of  the  Hamath  inscription  noticed  above, 
along  with  others  like  it  from  the  same  neighborhood ;  and 
in  the  same  year  another  Englishman,  Dr.  W.  Wright,  ren- 
dered the  important  service  of  securing  all  the  Hamath 
inscriptions  for  the  museum  at  Constantinople,  thus  making 
them  accessible  to  scientific  investigation.^ 

Before  long  there  came  from  many  quarters,  from  Syria 
and  Asia  Minor,  and  in  one  case,  and  quite  recently  in  an- 
other, from  Babylon  itself,  tidings  of  similar  inscriptions  and 

1  In  still  another  way  Dr.  Wright's  name  occupies  a  prominent  position  in 
the  history  of  the  young  science  of  "  Hittitology."  He  was  the  first  who 
gathered  together  all  the  Hittite  inscriptions  then  known  in  his  well-known 
and  much-used  book  "  The  Empire  of  the  Hittites  "  (2d  edition,  London, 
1886),  at  the  same  time  discussing  the  numerous  passages  from  Egyptian, 
Assyrian,  Biblical,  classical  and  other  sources  in  which  the  Hittites  or  their 
monuments  are  mentioned.  Even  after  the  recent  publication  of  Messer- 
schmidt's  Corpus  Inscriptiofium  Hittiticarum  (Berlin,  1900),  Wright's  book 
has  a  certain  value  chiefly  for  its  pictorial  representations.  —  The   Editor. 


DURING  IDTH   CENTURY:    IIITTITES 


757 


sculptures  of  apparently  the  same  origin  having  been  found. 
To  name  the  more  important  of  them,  I  mention  those  in 
the  pass  of  Karabel  between  Sart  (Sardis)  and  Smyrna  (re- 
ferred to  above)  as  belonging  to  the  western  part  of  Asia 
Minor;  and  those  at  Boghazkoi  and  Uyiik  north  of  the 
lower  course  of  the  Halys  as  coming  from  the  north;  while 
between  these  two  districts  in  the  west  and  north  we  have 
examples  from  Beikoi  (northeast  of  Afiun-Karahissar)  and 
from  Giaur-Kalesi  (southwest  of  Angora).  Besides  there 
are  others  from  Kolitolu  and  Iflatunbunar,  northeast  and 
east  of  the  Beishehr  Lake.  West  of  the  Taurus  and  Anti- 
Taurus  we  notice  inscrip- 
tions from  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Bulgharmaden 
and  Ivriz,  from  Bor  and 
Andaval,  from  Fraktin 
and  from  Akrak,  northeast 
of  Kaisariye  (Caesarea). 
In  Syria  we  have  those 
from  Hama  (Hamath) 
and  Aleppo,  from  Iskan- 
derun  and   (southeast    of  Hittite  BowI  tVom  Babylon 

the    latter)   from    Kirtsh- 

oghlu,  and  especially  those  from  Jerabis  on  the  Euphrates, 
which  lies  in  the  territory,  perhaps  on  the  very  site,  of  the  an- 
cient Karkemish.  From  the  region  between  the  Euphrates 
and  Anti-Taurus  we  have  examples  from  Mar'ash  and  from 
Samsat  on  the  Euphrates,  from  Izgin  (west  of  Albistan), 
from  Palanga  and  from  Giiriin,  from  Ordasu  near  Malatya 
(the  ancient  Melitene),  and  lastly  from  Birejik  (north  of 
Jerabis)  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Euphrates.  Of  the  inscrip- 
tions known  to  have  been  discovered  in  regions  different 
from  where  they  were  originally  cut,  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant are  the  above-mentioned  inscription  from  the  ruins 
of  Babylon  upon  some  sort  of  a  bowl,  ai\d  the  recently  dis- 


758  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

covered  inscription  from  the  same  ruins  engraved  behind  a 
figure  of  the  Hittite  Zeus,  the  god  of  the  sky.  To  these  latter 
is  to  be  added  the  inscription  upon  the  pommel  of  a  king 
generally  read  Tarkondemos,  which  will  be  discussed  later. 

It  was  after  the  discovery  of  a  number  of  these  inscrip- 
tions that  Sayce  in  particular,  the  versatile  and  active  Eng- 
lish scholar,  pointed  out  an  identity  of  kind  existing  between 
several  of  them,  thereby  rendering  a  service  the  importance  of 
which  is  not  to  be  underestimated.  Thus  there  sprang  into 
existence  an  historical  people  whose  very  existence  up  to 
that  time  seemed  wholly  unknown  to  us.  To  all  appear- 
ance this  people  was  possessed  of  a  great  past.  It  had  ex- 
tended or  at  least  had  marched  victoriously  over  a  considerable 
part  of  Asia  Minor;  it  had  reached  the  Euphrates,  perhaps 
even  crossed  it,  penetrating  into  the  East,  and  had  passed 
down  into  Syria.  It  boasted  of  an  art  derived,  it  is  true, 
from  Egypt  and  the  lands  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  but 
still  it  was  independent  and  creative  enough  to  work  out  its 
own  method  of  writing.  Even  here,  however,  it  is  possible, 
or  rather,  as  my  investigations  have  placed  the  matter  be- 
yond doubt,  it  must  be  regarded  as  certain  that  it  followed 
the  model  of  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphic  characters.  Was 
this  people  really  unknown  to  us  or  have  we  information 
respecting  it  from  other  sources  ? 

Wright  and  Savce,  whose  services  in  the  matter  of  these 
inscriptions  have  been  mentioned,  thought  they  were  able 
to  answer  this  question  in  the  affirmative.  As  we  have 
seen  above,  some  of  the  inscriptions  were  found  in  Syria  and 
the  district  Iving  to  the  north  of  it.  Here  the  pre-Indo- 
germanic  Armenians,  the  Assyrians  and  the  Egyptians  (as 
their  inscriptions  tell  us),  know  of  the  land  Khate.  Its  in- 
habitants are  called  in  the  Old  Testament  Khittim,  /.  e., 
Hittites,  and  consequently  the  above-mentioned  investiga- 
tors, followed  by  the  bulk  of  scholars,  and  therefore  of 
course   by  the  world  at  large,  have  designated  the  inscrip- 


The  Hittite  God  of  the  Sky 

{Stele  in  dolerite,  excavated  by  Dr.  Koldeiuey  in  the  palace  of  Nebuchadre-z-'Z.ar  at 
Babylon  in  l8gg) 


DURING   lorn  CENTURY:   HITTITES  759 

tions  by  the  name  Hittite.  But  such  a  designation  appears 
at  first  sight  to  be  inappropriate.  For  the  name  Hittite,  de- 
rived as  it  is  from  the  name  of  a  country,  could  properly 
speaking  only  be  employed  if  it  was  sure  that  all  the  inscrip- 
tions were  found  in  the  so-called  land  of  Khate,  which  they 
were  not ;  or  that  they  were  the  product  of  a  people  belong- 
ing exclusively  to  Khate,  something  that  could  not  be  known. 
In  the  latter  case  they  could  tell  us  nothing  at  all  as  to  the 
particular  nationality  of  this  people.  But  even  supposing 
that  the  name  Khittim  (=  Hittite),  and  its  equivalents  in  the 
above  mentioned  inscriptions,  applied  to  a  single  definite 
people  (and  no  more)  belonging  to  the  country  Khate,  and 
that  the  Khate-folk  of  the  Egyptians,  Assyrians,  and  pre- 
Indogermanic  Armenians  were  therefore  all  one  stock,  which 
is  a  mere  hypothesis  ;  and  supposing  futhermore  that  these 
Hittites  from  Khate  had  at  a  certain  time  been  settled  in 
Asia  Minor,  or  had  even  enjoyed  a  supremacy  there  —  the 
proof  that  they,  and  they  alone,  were  the  authors  of  the 
hieroglyphic  inscriptions  in  Syria  and  Asia  Minor  is  still 
lacking  unless  we  are  able  definitely  to  assign  the  inscrip- 
tions in  question  to  their  period.  Therefore  in  order  to 
arrive  at  a  positive  knowledge,  we  must  first  of  all  determine 
the  time  when  the  inscriptions  were  written.  This  funda- 
mental work  having  been  omitted  by  Sayce  and  Wright, 
their  hypothesis  lacked  the  necessary  confirmation. 

The  problem  may  be  attacked  from  more  than  one  side. 
It  would  be  a  great  step  in  advance,  if  with  some  degree  of 
certainty  we  could  fix  the  relative  chronology  of  the  inscrip- 
tions, the  relative  order  of  their  composition.  It  is  a  species 
of  picture  writing  that  we  have  to  deal  with,  and  in  rnany  of 
the  inscriptions,  though  not  in  all,  the  constituent  characters, 
to  a  considerable  extent,  may  still  be  recognized  as  pictures. 
Thus  in  some  instances  we  find  an  animal  head  with  certain 
characteristic  features  ;  in  others,  however,  we  find  corre- 
sponding to  it  what  is  recognized  to  be  an  animal  head  only 


760  EXPLORATIONS  IN    lilBLE  LANDS 

by  the  help  of  the  former.  Or  again  we  find  a  human  head 
in  relief  with  a  tuft  above  and  something  looking  like  a  handle 
or  support  underneath,  while  in  other  inscriptions  this  head, 
perhaps  only  the  fore-part  of  it,  is  merely  outlined  in  relief; 
in  still  others  we  find  instead  only  a  zigzag  line  produced. 
It  is  of  course  evident  that  the  simplified  and  reduced  sym- 
bols are  of  later  date  than  the  full  hieroglyphs,  since  the 
former  must  have  been  developed  from  the  latter.  For 
this  development  the  influence  ot  a  cursive  writing,  existing 
alongside  the  hieroglyphic  writing  used  in  connection  with 
stone  and  monuments,  was  in  the  main  responsible,  for  this 
cursive  writing  naturallv  tended  to  become  more  and  more 
simple,  thus  gradually  departing  further  from  the  hiero- 
glyphic original.  It  is  in  particular  one  circumstance  which 
brought  this  result  about.  Suppose  one  wished  for  business 
purposes  to  transfer  this  picture  writing  to  an  even  surface, 
it  would  practically  have  been  impossible  to  carve  all  the 
characters  in  relief,  or  engrave  or  depict  them  completely. 
It  would  have  consumed  by  far  too  much  time  to  do  this. 
Accordingly,  as  also  happened  in  the  course  of  the  develop- 
ment of  cuneiform  writing,  the  pictures  were,  for  business 
purposes,  drawn  or  scratched  in  outline  only.  But  as  a  neces- 
sary consequence,  this  verv  cursive  writing  produced  many  an 
additional  line,  wanting  in  the  original  pictures.  To  such  an 
extent  this  manner  of  writing  in  outline-  was  imitated  in 
inscriptions  that  we  meet  not  onlv  with  inscriptions  with 
incised  characters  in  outline,  but  also  characters  partially 
outlined  in  relief.  Thus  we  see  the  influence  of  cursive 
writing  operating  in  two  directions  at  once ;  the  original 
hieroglyphs  occurring,  firstly,  in  simplified  form,  and  sec- 
ondly, amplified  bv  additional  strokes. 

If  now  it  is  evident  that  the  cursive  writing  is  a  develop- 
ment of  the  original  full  picture  writing,  it  is  no  less  clear 
that  the  more  traces  we  find  of  the  influence  of  the  cursive 
writing,  the  later  in  general  the  writing  must  be.    Here,  then, 


DURING  19™   CENTURY:   HITTITES  761 

we  have  a  criterion  which  will  enable  us  to  determine  the 
relative  date  of  the  inscriptions  themselves,  with,  upon  the 
whole,  a  fair  degree  of  certainty:  inscriptions  with  simpli- 
fied characters  will  in  general  be  later  than  those  where  the 
corresponding  pictures  still  occur  in  full.  This  is  confirmed 
by  a  second  consideration.  In  some  of  the  inscriptions  the 
writing,  as  has  already  been  said,  is  in  relief;  in  others  it  is 
engraved.  In  their  sculpture  work  the  people  of  the  in- 
scriptions knew  only  the  relief;  their  pictures  are  cut  out, 
not  cut  in.  The  relief  writing  will  therefore  be  the  original, 
and  accordingly  inscriptions  where  the  writing  is  in  relief 
must  in  general  be  assigned  to  an  earlier  date  than  those 
with  engraved  characters.  On  the  other  hand,  we  can  ob- 
serve that  pictures  which  exist  in  both  the  simplified  and 
non-simplified  form,  as  a  rule  appear  in  the  simplified  form 
when  the  inscription  is  engraved.  On  the  whole,  therefore, 
our  two  criteria  coincide  and  support  each  other. 

Without  fearing  to  fall  into  any  very  serious  error  we 
may  now  proceed  to  determine  the  relative  chronology  of 
the  inscriptions,  resting  our  various  conclusions  upon  the 
form  or  shape  of  the  characters  and  the  method  of  their 
representation.  Thus  in  any  event  the  Hama  (Hamath) 
inscriptions  must  be  counted  amongst  the  oldest ;  none  of 
those  from  Jerabis  can  be  regarded  as  so  early  ;  while  for 
example  the  inscription  on  the  bowl  from  Babylon  men- 
tioned above  will  be  one  of  the  latest. 

But  this  gives  us  no  absolute  date.  It  remains  still  un- 
determined whether  the  inscriptions  belong  to  the  first, 
second,  or  even  the  third  millennium  before  Christ.  It  will 
be  possible,  however,  to  fix  the  absolute  chronology  approxi- 
mately, if  in  connection  with  the  inscriptions  or  with  the 
sculptures  accompanying  the  former,  we  can  find  certain 
evidences  or  distinctive  marks  characteristic  for  a  particular 
period.  Thus  —  to  quote  some  examples  —  at  the  time 
of  Rameses  II.,  of  Egypt  (about  1300  b.  c.)  a  certain  king 


762 


EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 


of  Khate  is  represented  by  an  Egyptian  artist  as  wearing  a 
pointed  hat,  while  another  king  of  the  time  of  Rameses  III. 
(about  1 200  B.  c.)  wears  a  skull  cap  (or  perhaps  a  bandeau). 
Both  head-dresses  are  found  in  connection  with  the  kings  of 

the  people  of  our  inscrip- 
tions. With  them  the 
pointed  hat  is  the  older 
fashion,  as  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  it  is  worn 
by  the  gods,  even  at  a 
time  when  we  find  the 
kings  wearing  a  skull 
cap  or  bandeau,  as  e.  g., 
on  the  sculptures  of 
Boghazkoi  and  Ivriz. 
Fashions,  like  other  pro- 
ducts of  civilization,  mi- 
grate freely  from  people 
to  people,  particularly 
from  those  who  possess 
both  a  higher  civilization 
and  a  greater  political  influence.  From  the  dates  of  the  above- 
mentioned  kings  of  Khate  with  some  degree  of  certainty 
we  may  therefore  argue  for  the  approximate  dates  of  those 
kings  who  on  their  sculptures  appear  with  a  similar  head- 
dress, whether  thev  are  related  to  each  other  or  not.  Accord- 
inglv,  such  of  the  latter  as  wear  a  high  pointed  hat,  e.  g.^  the 
Pseudo-Sesostris  in  the  pass  of  Karabel,  will  perhaps  date 
from  a  time  prior  to  Rameses  III.  (1200  b.  c),  while  those 
who  appear  with  a  skull  cap  or  bandeau,  e.  g.,  the  kings  on 
the  monuments  of  Boghazkoi,  must  be  regarded  as  later 
than  Rameses  II.,  /.  e.,  later  than  1300  b.  c.  Thus  the 
inscription  of  the  Pseudo-Sesostris  in  the  pass  of  Karabel 
would  be  older  than  1200,  the  inscriptions  accompanying 
the  Boghazkoi  sculptures  later  than  1300  b.  c. 


Sculptures  and  Inscriptions  near  Ivriz 


The  Pseudo-Sesostris 
Car'ved  on  the  rock  in  the  Pass  of  Karabel) 


m 


DURING  19™  CENTURY:   IIITTITES  763 

Without  any  doubt  Jerabis  on  the  Euphrates  Hes  in  the 
territory  of  the  ancient  Karkeniish  (Carchemish).  In  717 
B.  c.  Karkemish  was  absorbed  by  Assyria,  and  for  this  and 
other  reasons  we  are  forced  to  conclude  that  the  numerous 
hieroglyphic  inscriptions  from  Jerabis  belong  to  a  period 
prior  to  717  B.  c.  Furthermore,  in  part  they  are  of  a  very 
distinct  style  and  character,  and,  as  may  here  be  premised 
without  prejudice  to  our  argument,  belong  to  a  number  of 
different  kings.  We  must  distribute  them  accordingly  over 
at  least  a  couple  of  centuries,  say  the  eighth  and  ninth  cen- 
turies before  Christ,  the  oldest  known  inscription  from 
Jerabis  thus  being  certainly  not  later  than  900  b.  c. 

At  Boghazkoi,  which  we  have  had  occasion  to  mention 
more  than  once  already,  we  find  inscriptions  with  the  winged 
disk  of  the  sun  at  the  top.  This  is  the  symbol  of  royalty, 
and  is  once  borne  by  a  genius  after  the  fashion  of  the  two 
who  at  Boghazkoi  carry  the  lord  of  the  gods  upon  their 
shoulders.  In  one  instance  at  Boghazkoi  the  winged  disk 
is  represented  as  an  eight-rayed  star  enclosed  in  a  ring. 
Above  it  appears  Venus,  likewise  represented  as  a  star,  and 
probably  even  as  an  eight-rayed  star  surrounded  by  a  ring. 
In  Assyrian  sculptures  the  king  has  the  same  winged  disk 
before  or  above  him,  and  with  it  very  often  we  find  other 
symbols  and  characters,  the  moon  and  the  Venus  star  being 
especially  frequent.  This  winged  solar  disk  is  represented 
by  Assyrian  artists  sometimes  as  a  simple  disk,  sometimes 
as  a  disk  surrounded  by  a  ring,  and  lastly  as  a  star  enclosed 
in  a  ring.  I  know  of  only  one  example  in  Assyrian  sculp- 
ture, —  the  black  obelisk  of  Shalmaneser  II.,  860-825  b.  c, 
—  where  the  king  has  before  him  only  the  sun  and  the 
Venus  star,  and  in  this  single  instance  both  appear  as  eight- 
rayed  stars  within  a  ring.  Again,  only  once  in  the  sculp- 
tures of  the  people  with  which  we  are  dealing,  namely,  in 
the  case  noted  above,  is  the  winged  sun  as  emblem  of  roy- 
alty coupled  with  the  Venus  star,  and  in  this  single  instance 


764  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

both  appear  as  stars  inclosed  in  a  ring,  the  sun  at  least  as 
an  eight-rayed  star.  Now  if  Shalmaneser  II.,  as  we  may- 
infer  from  the  inscriptions  hitherto  published,  was  the  very 
first  Assyrian  monarch  who  overran  the  country  between 
the  Taurus  and  the  Euphrates  as  far  as  MeHtene,  making  it 
really  tributary  to  himself,  it  is  not  hard  to  draw  the  fur- 
ther conclusion  that  those  two  monuments  which  are  iden- 
tical in  points  so  remarkable  must  date  from  approximately 
the  same  time.  Shalmaneser's  march  on  Melitene  took 
place  in  the  year  838  b.  c,  while  his  obelisk  was  erected 
in  or  after  the  year  830.  The  Boghazkoi  sculpture  there- 
fore, with  its  accompanying  inscription,  will  approximately 
date  from  the  second  half  of  the  ninth  century  before  Christ. 
Besides,  the  king  to  whom  the  inscription  refers  wears  a 
skull  cap  or  a  bandeau,  and  should  therefore,  according 
to  what  has  been  stated  before,  have  flourished  later  than 
1300  B.  c,  which  harmonizes  with  our  third  conclusion. 

In  Jerabis,  as  mentioned  above,  we  find  a  whole  series  of 
inscriptions  exhibiting  most  various  forms  of  characters,  but 
in  no  instance  are  the  latter  engraved.  We  are  therefore 
justified  in  concluding  that  before  the  incorporation  of 
Karkemish  in  the  Assyrian  empire,  in  717  b.  c,  engraved 
writing,  in  Karkemish  at  least,  was  not  in  vogue  at  all  or 
else  only  to  a  very  slight  extent.  Moreover,  so  far  as  we 
can  see,  complete  identity  of  language  can  be  easily  proved 
for  at  least  the  greater  number  of  our  inscriptions,  and 
similarly  a  certain  development  in  the  character  of  the  writ- 
ing,—  a  fact  from  which  we  may  infer  that  between  the 
authors  of  the  different  inscriptions  very  close  relations 
existed,  and  that  therefore  the  kind  of  writing  in  use  at 
Karkemish  was  also  in  use  in  the  other  parts  of  the  terri- 
tory covered  by  these  inscriptions  and  vice  versa.  Hence 
inscriptions  in  engraved  characters  are  at  the  most  not  much 
older  than  717  b.  c,  probably  even  later.  This  will  apply 
to  those  from  Bulgharmaden,  Bor,  Andaval,  and  Akrak,  to 


DURING  lOni  CENTURY:    HITTITES  765 

the  two  found  in  Babylon,  to  one  from  Mar^ash,  and  so  on. 
This  agrees  with  the  fact  that  the  Old-Aramaic  inscriptions 
from  Senjirli  in  North  Syria,  found  within  the  territory  of 
our  inscriptions,  up  to  the  second  half  of  the  eighth  century 
are  written  in  raised  characters. 

In  connection  with  a  further  argument,  this  result  helps 
us  to  extend  our  determination  of  the  chronology.  In  the 
so-called  Tarkondemos  inscription  the  Assyrian  marginal 
inscription  is  in  Babylonian  characters.  This  points  to  an 
origin  at  a  time  when  the  Babylonian  and  not  the  Assyrian 
influence  was  predominant  in  Western  Asia,  /.  d".,  to  a  period 
at  least  before  about  i  loo  b.  c.  or  after  606  b.  c,  when  Nin- 
eveh fell,  or  else,  as  was  formerly  the  opinion  of  Sayce,  to 
the  reign  of  Sargon  (722-705  b.  c),  whose  inscriptions  fre- 
quently exhibit  a  Babylonizing  tendency  in  their  cuneiform 
characters.  Moreover,  we  find  among  the  hieroglyphs  of 
the  Tarkondemos  inscription  one  sign,  that  denoting  mi 
and  me^  of  quite  a  characteristic  form.  We  find  this  else- 
where in  only  two  or  three  inscriptions  with  engraved  char- 
acters, and  therefore,  of  relatively  late  date  (say  later  than 
700  B.  c),  and  besides  in  a  relatively  late  inscription  (say 
of  about  750  B.  c),  and  a  little  amulet  or  seal  inscription, 
with  characters  in  relief,  from  Jerabis.  From  this  fact 
we  may  conclude  that  the  bilingual  inscription  of  Tar- 
kondemos belongs  to  about  the  eighth  century.  In  any 
event  it  cannot  be  earlier  than  iioo  b.  c,  and  we  must 
accordingly  place  it  either  after  606  b.  c,  or,  as  the  cunei- 
form writing  of  the  Assyrio-Babylonian  version  represents 
rather  Babylonizing  than  Babylonian  characters,  at  the 
time  of  Sargon,  722-705  b.  c,  or  thereabouts  ;  a  result 
which  coincides  with  that  drawn  from  the  mere  shape  of 
the  hieroglyphs.  This  determination  of  the  age  of  the 
Tarkondemos  inscription  applies  also  to  inscriptions  where 
the  writing  resembles  that  of  the  Tarkondemos  ;  and  as 
the   characteristic   form  for  mi  occurs  also  in  two   or  three 


766  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

inscriptions  with  engraved  characters,  it  will  apply  to  these 
too  and  others  like  them.  These  inscriptions,  therefore, 
written  in  the  engraved  character  may  be  safely  referred  to 
Sargon's  time  or  later  (perhaps  even  later  than  606  b.  c.)  — 
a  conclusion  at  which  we  had  already  arrived  for  another 
reason  discussed  above.  Finally,  certain  Hittite  seal  in- 
scriptions found  in  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  cannot  be  of  later 
origin  than  606  b.  c,  because  in  this  year  Nineveh  was 
destroyed. 

From  arguments  of  this  nature  it  is  plain  that  at  all 
events  the  great  mass  of  the  inscriptions  belongs  to  a  period 
between  1000  and  600  b.  c,  allowing  perhaps  a  little  on 
either  side.  The  approximate  chronologv  thus  arrived  at 
for  the  series  tallies  well  enough  with  that  reached  by  the 
other  methods  indicated  above,  also  with  that  fixed  by  Puch- 
stein  for  the  accompanving  sculptures.  Our  results  mav 
therefore  be  held  to  be  approximately  correct.  These  re- 
sults will  make,  e.g.^  the  Hamath  inscriptions,  the  character 
of  which  is  of  an  earlier  type  than  that  of  any  inscription 
from  Jerabis,  date  from  about  1000  b.  c,  or  earlier,  while 
according  to  them  the  inscription  on  the  bowl  from  Babv- 
lon  will  date  from  about  600  b.  c.  An  analysis  of  the  in- 
scriptions corroborates  this  view.  Thus,  an  inscription  from 
Ordasu  (accompanying  a  lion  hunt),  where  the  characters 
exhibit  a  relativelv  late  form  but  still  are  cut  out  in  relief, 
must  date  from  between  711-708  b.  c,  because  it  belongs 
to  Mud(t)allu  of  Kommagene,  who  according  to  the  cunei- 
form inscriptions  during  this  period  held  Melitene.  On 
the  other  side  two  inscriptions  in  engraved  characters,  includ- 
ing that  on  the  bowl,  seem  to  have  been  composed  after 
606  b.  c.  or  not  much  earlier,  because  according  to  their 
contents  Karkemish  is  apparentlv  held  no  longer  bv  an 
Assvrian  king  but  bv  a  king  of  Cilicia. 

At  this  point  the  further  question  mav  be  put,  how  old 
this   hieroglyphic  system  of  ours  reallv  is.     We  mav  point 


DURING  191"  CENTURY:   HITTITES  767 

to  the  fact  that  even  in  the  inscriptions  fronn  Hama  (Ha- 
math),  which,  apart  perhaps  from  that  carved  on  the  rock 
of  the  Pseudo-Sesostris,  are  undoubtedly  the  oldest  of  the 
series,  we  find   no  longer  a  pure  picture-writing,  but  one 


Hittite  Inscription  on  a  Bowl  from  Babylon 

already  modified  by  the  influence  of  the  cursive.  It  follows 
from  this  that  the  system  is  of  earlier  date  than  the  Ha- 
math  inscriptions,  that  is,  earlier  than  about  looo  b.  c.  It 
is  to  be  noted  on  the  other  hand  that  about  1400  the 
Assyrio-Babylonian  cuneiform  writing  then  in  use  in  West- 
ern Asia  was  also  employed  in  the  royal  despatches  sent  to 
the    king  of  Egypt   by   the  various  princes    ruling  in    the 


768  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

southern  section  of  the  area  covered  by  our  hieroglyphic 
inscriptions  and  in  that  neighborhood.  Hence  about 
1400  B.  c.  our  hieroglyphic  system  does  not  yet  seem  to 
have  been  introduced,  at  least  in  Hamath,  or  Karkemish. 
It  does  not  follow  from  this,  of  course,  that  it  may  not  have 
been  used  in  the  region  to  the  north  and  in  Asia  Minor  at 
this  period. 

In  some  respects  it  follows  the  Egyptian  model,  just 
as  certain  types  of  Egyptian  art  are  also  found  among  the 
people  employing  our  hieroglyphs.  It  must  therefore 
have  been  first  introduced  in  a  region  lying  close  to  the 
Egyptian  sphere  of  influence  and  at  a  time  when  Egypt  was 
there  the  predominant  power,  that  is  to  say,  prooably  in 
Syria;  at  least  sometime  after  1400  b.  c,  when  the  Egyptian 
supremacy  in  that  region  gradually  broke  down;  perhaps 
about  1300  B.  c,  when  after  a  prolonged  struggle  Rameses 
II.  became  the  friend  and  ally  of  Khate-sere,  king  of  Khate  ; 
or  may  be  not  until  about  1200  b.  c,  in  the  reign  of  Rame- 
ses III. 

If,  then,  matters  stand  as  I  have  shown  at  length  above, 
that  is,  if  we  know  of  no  inscription  in  Syria  and  to  the 
north  of  it  which  is  certainly  much  earlier  than  1000  b.  c, 
then  there  is  absolutely  no  ground  left  for  going  back  to 
the  old  kings  of  Khate  mentioned  in  the  Egyptian  inscrip- 
tions of  say  1300  B.  c.  and  earlier,  as  the  authors  of  our  in- 
scriptions. It  rather  follows  from  this  chronology  that  we 
must  attribute  those  found  in  Khate  to  the  petty  princes, 
or  their  predecessors  and  successors,  whom  we  find  in  Syria 
and  to  the  north  of  it  during  the  time  of  the  Assyrian 
supremacy,  /.  e.,  after  900  b.  c.  My  decipherments  have 
confirmed  this  throughout.  As  far  as  is  known  at  present, 
no  king  of  Khate  has  left  any  inscription  in  Syria  or  north 
of  it.  At  the  same  time  my  decipherments  have  shown  that 
at  least  the  large  inscriptions  from  Asia  Minor  are  of  rela- 
tively late  date,  and  that  the  great  extent  of  ground   they 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  HITTITES 


769 


cover  gives  not  the  slightest  ground  for  postulating  a  great 
Hittite  empire  in  ancient  times  extending  as  far  as  the  shores 
of  the  ^Egean  Sea,  as  the  "  Hittitologists  "  have  done.  If, 
therefore,  we  understand  by  the  name  "  Hittite,"  as  is  com- 
monly done,  both  the  Khate  of  the  Egyptian  kings  and 
the  later  non-Semitic  inhabitants  of  Syria,  we  have  no  right 
to  call  the  authors  of  our  inscriptions  Hittites  as  long  as  a 
relationship  between  the  two  has  not  been  proved.  But  if 
we  are  content  to  apply  this  name  only  to  the  non-Semitic 
population  in  Assyrian  times  inhabiting  Syria  and  the  dis- 
trict to  the  north,  /.  e.y  Khate,  whosoever  these  inhabitants 
were  and  of  whatever  nationality,  then  we  may  apply  it  to 
the  authors  of  the  inscrip- 
tions found  there,  but  only 
to  these,  not  to  the  authors 
of  those  monuments  found 
over  a  great  part  of  Asia  Mi- 
nor, the  conquest  of  which  by 
"  Hittites  "  from  Khate  has 
still  to  be  proved.  Our 
chronological  investigations 
have  shown  that  the  use  of 
the  name  "Hittites"  for  the 
people  of  our  inscriptions  is 
as  yet  most  precarious, 
though  justifiable  under  certain  suppositions,  which,  how- 
ever, are  nothing  more  than  suppositions. 

Though  it  was  comparatively  easy  to  fix  the  chronology 
of  the  inscriptions  approximately,  insurmountable  difficul- 
ties seemed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  their  decipherment. 
Writing,  language,  and  content  were  equally  unknown.  In 
the  year  1880,  however,  Sayce  anew  discovered  the  so-called 
Tarkondemos  bilingual  inscription,  and  with  this  there 
emerged  the  hope  of  at  last  extracting  from  the  inscriptions 
their  hidden  meaning.     Sayce  made  the  attempt  at  attain- 


Bilingual  Inscription  on  the  Silver  Boss 
of  Tarkondemos 


770  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

ing  to  the  end  desired,^  but  it  miscarried  and  had  to  mis- 
carry. For  the  very  peculiar  character  of  the  bilingual  in- 
scription made  it  impossible  to  reach  a  sure  result  by  its 
aid.  For,  in  the  first  place,  the  Assyrio-Babylonian  ver- 
sion was  to  all  appearances  the  work  of  an  unskilful  en- 
graver, and  many  points  of  reading,  even  the  verv  name  of 
the  king,  were  confessedly  doubtful,  while  the  arrangement 
of  the  hieroglyphic  version  was  by  no  means  self-evident 
or  certain.  Furthermore,  of  the  six  symbols  which  occur 
in  the  hieroglyphic  version,  onlv  three,  or  at  most  four, 
have  with  certainty  (in  spite  of  Sayce's  supposition  to  the 
contrary)  been  found  in  other  inscriptions  of  this  character. 
Without  a  doubt,  in  his  reading  of  the  Assyrio-Babylonian 
version  Sayce  in  some  points  was  more  probably  wrong 
than  right.  He  arranged  the  hieroglvphic  version  wrongly, 
and  he  found  all  six  symbols  in  other  inscriptions  ;  some  of 
them  he  recognized  in  characters  which  he  regarded  as  mere 
variants,  but  which  in  reality  w'ere  absolutely  distinct  forms. 
Accordingly,  as  the  bilingual  was  essentially  the  foundation 
on  which  he  built,  it  follows  that  his  further  "  decipherings  " 
in  the  main  can  have  but  little  claim  to  this  title.  It  should 
be  noted,  however,  that  his  efforts  have  not  been  altogether 
in  vain.  Thus  with  the  help  ot  the  bilingual  he  has  by 
chance  made  out  correctly,  but  not  proved,  the  meaning  of 
a  sign  for  me  and  mi,  also  of  a  sign  for  "king"  or  its  equi- 
valent. Further,  a  symbol  which  according  to  my  reading 
stands  for  dei,  "  lord,"  he  has  by  chance  translated  approx- 
imately correctly  as  "king,"  Two  other  signs  he  takes, 
not  without  good  reasons,  to  serve  as  case-endings,  and  an- 
other sign  from  the  inscriptions  which  accompany  the  fig- 
ures of  gods  at  Boghazkoi  he  takes  to  be  the  determinative 
for  "  god,"  allot  which  are  correct  or  at  least  approximately 

^  In  the  "Transactions  ot  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology,"  vol.  vii., 
pp.  274,  se^^.,  and  299,  .'^7^.,  also  in  Wright,  "  The  Empire  of  the  Hittites," 
aded.,  pp.   166,  seqq.y  etc. 


DURING  IQTH  CENTURY:   HITTITES  771 

SO.  Unfortunately  for  himself,  he  identified  with  the  last 
another  symbol  with  quite  a  different  meaning, — the  sym- 
bol for  "country,"  —  thus  raising  a  barrier  which  made  fur- 
ther advance  impossible.  Curiously  enough,  once  before  he 
had  guessed  the  meaning  of  this  same  sign  correctly,  though 
it  is  true  accidentally,  and  on  quite  untenable  ground.  Any 
further  contributions  of  Sayce  towards  the  deciphering 
of  the  inscriptions  are  quite  arbitrary  and  without  founda- 
tion. 

No  essential  advance  was  made  by  Sayce's  successors, 
namely  Ball,^  Menant,^  Peiser,^  and  Halevy.^  It  should 
be  mentioned,  however,  that  Halevy  is  correct,  though 
accidentally  so,  in  taking  (independently  from  my  own  re- 
searches) a  symbol,  which  can  apparently  be  added  or  left 
out  at  pleasure  after  that  for  me,  to  represent  the  vowel  e. 
The  rest  we  may  pass  over  in  silence.  In  the  works  of 
the  above  mentioned  scholars  a  wild  logic  runs  riot,  and  its 
extravagances  call  for  no  description. 

Peiser  took  a  direction  quite  different  from  that  of  the 
other  decipherings,  in  the  main  confining  himself  to  the 
seal-inscriptions  found  in  Sennacherib's  palace  at  Nineveh. 
These  he  arbitrarily  attributed  to  Hittite  kings,  and  as  Sen- 
nacherib in  his  cuneiform  inscriptions  had  omitted  to  pre- 
serve us  the  names  of  such,  he  assigned  them  in  the  same 
arbitrary  fashion  to  two  kings  belonging  to  the  time  of  his 
predecessors,  Tiglathpileser  III.  and  Sargon.  Since  these 
hypotheses  which  form  the  basis  of  his  argument  are  abso- 
lutely groundless  throughout,  and  the  names  of  other 
couples  of  "  Hittite  "  kings  of  the  same  period,  according  to 
Peiser's  method  of  reasoning,  would  have  suited  the  inscrip- 

^  In  the  *♦  Proceedings  of  the  Society  of  Biblical   Archaeology,"  vol.  x., 

pp.  437.  ^^??- 

^   Memoir es  de  T Academie  des  hiscriptions,  vol.  xxxiv.,  pp.   I,  seqq. 

^   Die  Hettitischen  hischriften. 

^   Revue  Semitique,  vol.  i.,  pp.  55,  seqq.,  and  126,  seqq. 


772  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

tions  equally  well,  and  since,  moreover,  his  further  results 
rest  upon  a  series  of  similar  postulates,  it  is  clear  how  ex- 
ceedingly vague  these  "  results  "  must  be.  Besides,  he  is 
directly  wrong  in  his  arrangement  in  connection  with  one 
of  the  inscriptions  as  in  various  of  his  other  suppositions, 
a  circumstance  which  makes  it  still  more  evident  that  all  his 
conclusions  with  respect  to  the  phonetic  deciphering  of  the 
inscriptions  are  equally  false.  However,  his  efforts  too  have 
not  been  quite  without  result ;  his  recognition  of  one  sym- 
bol as  a  punctuation  mark  is  approximately  correct.  Any- 
thing he  may  have  done  for  the  correct  or  approximately 
correct  determination  of  the  sound  values  he  owes  to 
chance  ;  to  the  interpretation  of  the  inscriptions  he  has  not 
contributed  an  iota.  So  much  for  the  labors  of  my  pre- 
decessors and  their  results. 

They  have  all  failed  sufficiently  to  remember  that  the 
decipherer  has  two  tasks  before  him,  —  one  being  the  deter- 
mination of  the  contents,  and  the  other  the  reading  of  the 
words  —  and  that  these  two  sections  of  the  work,  while  often 
running  parallel  and  frequently  overlapping,  still  cannot  be 
too  strictly  kept  separate.  We  may  be  able  to  read  an  in- 
scription without  understanding  it,  and  to  tell  the  contents 
of  another  without  being  able  to  read  it.  Throughout  my 
decipherings,  which  I  now  proceed  to  describe,  I  have  en- 
deavored as  far  as  possible  to  keep  the  two  problems  apart. 

At  the  first  sight  one  perceives  that  the  inscriptions  are 
written  in  the  so-called  boustrophedon  manner,  which 
Hayes  Ward  was  the  first  to  see  as  early  as  1873.  In  the 
inscriptions  there  are  no  empty  spaces  separating  the  dif- 
ferent word-groups  from  one  another.  Hence  the  first 
step  was  by  comparing  the  inscriptions  to  delineate  [i.  e.,  to 
separate  from  each  other)  the  various  word-groups.  In 
course  of  this  process  it  became  evident  that  different  signs, 
an  upright  knife  —  Peiser's  "  Sintrenner  "  —  and  a  similar 
sign  served  to  keep  the  word-groups  apart.     These  again 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  HITTITES  773 

made  it  possible  to  determine  many  other  word-groups, 
which  occurring  perhaps  only  once  and  in  unfamiliar  con- 
nections could  otherwise  not  have  been  recognized  as 
such. 

Then  it  was  easily  seen  that  the  same  word  in  the 
same  case  and  always  with  the  same  meaning  might  still  be 
written  differently.  Particularly  striking  was  the  use  of 
two  symbols  which  could  be  written  or  left  out  at  pleasure 
anywhere  in  the  word,  whether  beginning,  middle,  or  end. 
Consideration  of  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphic  writing,  where 
in  Egyptian  words  the  vowels  almost  invariably  are  not 
represented,  while  in  foreign  words  they  may  be  written  or 
not,  at  will,  suggested  at  once  that  these  two  signs  stand 
for  vowels.  At  all  events  it  is  improbable,  a  priori,  that 
spoken  consonants  should  have  been  left  unrepresented  in 
writing. 

But  this  arbitrariness  in  the  representation  of  the  vowels 
Is  not  the  only  cause  of  the  variety  of  the  word-figures. 
One  and  the  same  word  may  be  represented  in  each  of  the 
following  ways:  i.  By  means  of  a  single  sign  which  stands 
for  that  word  and  for  no  other.  i.  By  means  of  this  sign 
in  company  with  other  signs  found  also  in  the  groups  for 
other  words.  3.  By  means  of  these  latter  signs  unaccom- 
panied by  the  first.  The  following  scheme  will  explain  the 
statements  made.  Suppose  K  is  the  symbol  with  the  meaning 
"  king ;  "  a  and  b  the  other  symbols.  Then  the  word  for 
"  king  "  may  be  written  as  follows  :  i.  K,  1.  a-b,  3.  K-a-b, 
4.  a-b-K,  5.  a-K-by  6.  a-K,  7.  K-b.  A  word  may  there- 
fore be  represented  :  i.  ideographically,  i.  e.,  by  means  of  a 
sign  standing  for  the  idea  expressed  by  the  word,  and  for 
this  word  itself;  2.  phonetically,  i.  e.,  by  means  of  the  signs 
representing  sounds  of  this  word  and  primarily  for  its  con- 
sonants;  3.  by  a  combination  of  the  ideographic  and  pho- 
netic methods,  in  which  the  latter  is  to  be  held  explanatory 
of  the  former. 


774  EXPLORATIONS  IN   BIBLE  LANDS 

The  ideographs  prove  to '  be  very  numerous.  As  we 
learn  from  our  determining  the  contents  ot  the  inscriptions, 
we  have  ideographs  for  the  names  of  countries,  persons  and 
gods,  for  titles  and  dignities  such  as  king  and  lord,  for  ad- 
jectives, and  so  on.  The  numerous  ideographs  used  for 
the  names  of  gods  who  play  an  important  part  in  the  in- 
scriptions deserve  special  mention.  A  very  remarkable  fea- 
ture still  awaiting  a  satisfactory  explanation  is  the  fact  that 
perhaps  all  the  gods  mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  may  be 
represented  by  a  hand  placed  in  different  positions.  Thus 
the  "  Father  of  the  Gods  "  has  a  flat  hand  as  his  original 
hand-hieroglyph,  which  however  was  simplified  later,  while 
the  "  Mother  of  the  Gods "  has  a  fist  as  her  hand- 
hieroglyph. 

Some  of  the  ideographs,  apparently,  may  be  added  or  left 
out  at  pleasure.  Such  are  the  symbols  for  "  god,"  "  man," 
"  country,"  found  before  the  names  of  gods,  the  names  and 
attributes  of  kings,  the  names  of  towns  and  countries  re- 
spectively. In  such  cases  the  symbols  are  to  be  considered 
as  determinatives,  specifying  the  category  of  the  word  which 
follows. 

The  symbols  with  phonetic  values  may  be  divided  into 
two  main  classes,  those  which  are  but  rarely  met  with,  and 
those  which  are  found  everywhere  in  the  most  various  word- 
groups.  It  is  at  once  apparent  that  the  phonetic  values 
of  the  latter  must  be  as  simple  as  possible,  representing 
only  a  single  sound,  or  at  the  most  a  consonant  and  a 
vowel,  while  the  majority  of  the  former  represent  combina- 
tions of  more  than  two  sounds,  perhaps  a  consonant  and 
a  vowel  and  a  consonant,  or,  neglecting  the  vowels  in  be- 
tween, a  series  of  say  two  consonants. 

The  symbols  ocurring  frequently  are  remarkably  small  in 
number,  and  in  at  least  four  different  instances  two  of  them 
have  been  interchanged.  As  they  are  not  vowel-signs,  it 
follows  that  the  sounds  they  stand  for  must  have  one  con- 


DURING   19TH   CENTURY  :    HITTITES  115 

sonant  in  common,  while  only  one  of  them  in  each  case  can 
stand  for  a  simple  consonant.  There  are  scarcely  more  than 
perhaps  eight  signs  for  simple  consonants.  Hence  it  would 
appear  that  in  the  Hittite  tongue  there  were  only  eight  con- 
sonants. This,  however,  seems  incredible.  We  are  there- 
fore compelled  to  assume  that  as  in  the  Cypriotic  syllabary  a 
single  sign  could  represent  several  consonants,  all  belonging 
to  the  same  category,  of  course,  as  e.  g.  k  and  gy  d  and  /. 
Our  phonetic  decipherment  will  furnish  the  proof  of  this 
assertion.  Moreover,  we  find  at  most  three  vowel-signs, 
one  for  a  and  o  (and  u?),  another  for  e  and  /,  whereas  it  is 
evident  from  the  Assyrian  and  Greek  versions  of  proper 
names  belonging  to  the  Hittite  area,  e.  g.,  Melidd-u,  Syen- 
nesis,  Kommag-ene,  that  the  Hittites  had  more  than  three 
vowels  to  dispose  of.  Such  transliterations  therefore  prove 
that  they  were  as  saving  with  their  vowels  as  with  their  con- 
sonants. 

The  above  will  serve  to  show  in  a  measure  how  it  was 
possible  for  me  to  make  out  the  system  of  the  writing  with- 
out being  able  to  read  it  in  the  proper  sense.  The  con- 
tents of  the  inscriptions,  however,  could  in  part  be  made  out 
even  without  this.  A  few  hints  may  now  be  given  to  illus- 
trate it. 

Inscriptions  which  we  are  forced  to  assume  to  belong  to 
some  king  or  other  dignitary  frequently  begin  with  a  figure 
consisting  of  a  head  with  an  arm  attached,  the  hand  point- 
ing (not  to  the  mouth  but)  to  the  region  between  mouth 
and  nose.  If  we  suppose  the  hand  to  point  to  the  mouth,  a 
reference  to  an  analogous  instance  in  the  Egyptian  writing 
must  at  once  suggest  the  meaning  "  to  say  "  or  "  to  speak  " 
for  this  figure,  as  was  assumed  by  Sayce  at  a  later  stage  of 
his  decipherings :  "  thus  speaks  such  and  such  a  king." 
But  if  this  supposition  be  ruled  out,  then  according  to  all 
analogy,  the  meaning  "  I  "  favored  by  Halevy  and  others, 
and  at  an  earlier  stage  by  Sayce  as  well,  seems  about  the 


776  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

only  one  in  order.  What  else  should  the  figure  mean  ? 
Other  considerations  must  lead  us  to  suppose  that  a  word 
following  this  figure,  or  else  its  phonetic  transliteration, 
must  stand  for  "  am."  After  this  we  must  expect  to  find 
names  and  titles  of  the  king.  Since  even  in  the  greater  in- 
scriptions such  titles,  etc.,  are  also  found  in  the  middle  and 
even  at  the  end,  always  appearing  in  the  same  form,  /.  e.,  in 
the  same  case,  we  cannot  help  concluding  that  at  least  the 
bulk  of  the  inscriptions  beginning  with  "  I  am  "  contain 
only  titles,  attributes,  and  so  on  ;  including  above  all,  of 
course,  the  title  "  king  of" 

This  circumstance  assists  us  very  materially  in  understand- 
ing the  inscriptions  correctly,  for  it  appreciably  reduces  the 
number  of  possible  meanings.  By  comparing  the  inscrip- 
tions with  one  another  we  can  now  establish  the  ideographic 
or  phonetic  equivalents,  or  perhaps  both,  for  "king"  and 
various  synonyms  of  the  same  ;  for  "  son  "  or  "  child  "  with 
one  synonym  ;  for  "  country  "  and  the  names  of  countries  ; 
for  adjectives  like  "  great  "  and  "  mighty  "  or  their  likes  ;  for 
the  pronoun  "  this  ;  "  for  the  names  of  gods,  which  being  re- 
garded as  sacred  are  very  frequently  isolated  by  placing  be- 
fore and  after  (that  is,  above  and  below)  them  the  symbol 
which  denotes  the  beginning  of  a  new  word ;  for  words 
expressing  the  relations  between  men,  mostly  the  king  and 
the  gods,  as  perhaps  "  servant,"  etc. ;  for  names  of  kings  ; 
for  a  king's  title  occurring  only  in  certain  inscriptions  found 
within  a  narrow  radius.  Thus,  without  being  able  to  read 
a  single  symbol,  I  was  in  a  position  to  explain  a  not  in- 
considerable portion  of  the  inscriptions.  Furthermore,  I 
could  make  out  various  points  which  went  far  to  determine 
the  character  of  the  Hittite  speech.  Thus  the  substantives 
have  flectional  endings,  those  for  the  nominative  and  geni- 
tive singular  containing  only  vowels,  that  for  the  genitive 
plural  a  consonant.  As  for  the  syntax,  it  was  plain  that  the 
genitive  could  follow  or  precede  the  word  that  governs  it. 


57 


DURING   lOrii   CENTURY:   HITTITES  111 

This  fact  alone  excludes  the  possibility  of  a  connection 
with  the  so-called  Turanian  languages  on  the  one  side  and 
the  Semitic  tongues  on  the  other. 

It  is  now  to  be  noted  that  the  word  for  "  I  "  contains  a 
consonant  of  the  same  class  as  one  word  for  "  this,"  and  the 
ending  of  the  genitive  plural  a  consonant  of  the  same  class 
as  the  word  for  "am."  Besides,  a  word  for  "great,"  or  the 
like,  has  the  latter  as  its  first  consonant  and  the  former  as 
its  second.  The  last  named,  again,  is  the  first  consonant  in 
two  different  words  for  "son  "  or  "child  ;"  while,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  writing  of  it,  a  word  for  "  king  "  could  be 
regarded  as  a  compound  beginning  with  the  word  for  "  man." 
It  cannot  escape  the  Indogermanic  scholar  that  exactly 
the  same  is  or  must  have  been  the  case  in  Armenian.  Thus, 
before  I  could  read  a  word,  I  might  have  concluded  from 
the  mere  way  the  words  were  written  that  the  speech  was 
Armenian.  For  in  Armenian  the  word  for  "  I  "  is  es,  out 
of  eso  (out  of  edzo,  or  the  like),  while  a  word  for  "  this  "  is 
ais  ;  em^  formerly  emi^  means  "  I  am,"  while  oyn  was  once 
the  ending  of  the  genitive  plural ;  mets  out  of  medzi{s)  or 
the  like  means  "great;"  ustr  means  "  son  "  and  zav-ak 
"  descendant ;  "  ark^ay  is  "  king,"  and  ayr^  formerly  ar[o),  is 
"  man."  This  could  have  indicated  a  way  of  arriving  at  the 
reading  of  the  inscriptions.  I  found  another  which  led  to 
the  same  astonishing  result. 

If  the  inscriptions  from  Syria  and  the  districts  to  the 
north  belong,  as  we  have  shown  at  length,  to  the  period  be- 
tween say  looo  and  600  b.  c,  then  those  from  Hama  in 
Syria  have  come  down  from  kings  of  Hama;  those  from 
Jerabis  on  the  Euphrates,  in  the  territory  of  the  ancient 
Karkemish,  from  kings  of  Karkemish  ;  those  from  Mar'ash 
north  of  Syria  from  kings  of  Gurgum,  whose  capital  was  Mar- 
kash,  the  modern  Mar'ash.  In  other  words,  iucse  different  in- 
scriptions go  back  to  princes  of  various  petty  states,  not  to 
the  lord  of  a  single  great  empire  called  Khate  embracing  all 


778  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

the  others.  Accordingly,  it  is  vain  to  try  to  find  in  them  a 
word-group  or  a  single  symbol  denoting  a  common  expres- 
sion which  includes  the  whole  territory  of'these  kings  ;  rather 
do  we  find  in  the  places  where  such  a  common  name  might 
naturally  be  expected,  /.  e.,  in  particular  at  the  beginning  of 
the  inscriptions  before  the  word  for  "  king,"  different  ex- 
pressions according  to  the  different  places  of  discovery.  It 
is  therefore  important  to  know  from  the  beginning  the  name 
of  which  land  in  each  case  is  to  be  expected  in  the  inscrip- 
tion. Had  we  not  been  able  to  fix  the  chronology  of  the 
inscriptions  approximately,  did  we  not  know,  for  instance, 
that  the  oldest  of  them  can  scarcely  date  from  much  before 
looo  B.  c,  while  the  oldest  of  those  in  engraved  characters 
cannot  be  much  earlier  than  717  b.  c,  i.  e.,  the  year  of 
the  absorption  of  Karkemish,  it  would  have  been  difficult 
to  determine  these  names  with  certainty.  Suppose,  for  ex- 
ample, that  the  earliest  oPall  the  inscriptions  found  in  Syria, 
—  those  from  Hama  —  belonged  to  the  year  2000  b.  c,  we 
could  not  in  this  case  count  with  certainty  upon  finding  this 
same  word  "Hama"  in  an  earlier  form  in  the  name  of  the 
district  or  city  mentioned  in  the  inscription. 

Matters  are  different,  however.  We  know  that  as  far 
back  as  at  least  the  ninth  century  there  existed  a  state  or 
kingdom  with  its  centre  at  Hama.  Karkemish  is  mentioned 
in  an  Assyrian  inscription  as  far  back  as  1 100  b,  c.  and  also 
in  Egyptian  inscriptions  of  much  earlier  date.  As  for  the 
great  lion  inscription  from  Mar'ash,  it  is  as  good  as  certain, 
that  in  the  year  750  b.  c,  the  approximate  date  of  the  in- 
scription, the  city  was  called  Markash  and  the  territory  in 
which  it  lay  Gurgum.  We  know,  therefore,  what  names  of 
cities  important  for  our  investigations  are  to  be  found  in 
Syria  and  to  the  north,  at  the  time  when  our  inscriptions 
were  written.  Various  considerations  lead  us  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  old  name  Hamath  occurs  three  times  on  a 
stone  from  the  modern  Hama;  that  the  old  name   Karke- 


.s     ^ 


oi      S 


DURING  19'f/f   CENTURY:   HITTITES  T79 

mish  is  found  in  all  the  longer  inscriptions  from  Jerabis 
(considerable  portions  of  which  have  been  preserved),  but 
with  a  single  very  important  exception  nowhere  else  ;  finally, 
that  in  the  well  preserved  lion-inscription  from  Mar'ash  the 
name  Markash  or  Gurgum  must  occur. 

Several   years  ago  a  beautifully  preserved  inscription  sur- 
mounting the  representation  of  a  lion-hunt  was  dug  up  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Malatya,   the   ancient   Meli(e)dia    or 
Melitene.     The  style  of  art  and  the  character  of  writing 
prove  that  it  belongs  to  the  last  period  of  the  pre-Assyrian 
supremacy  of  the  Hittites  in  those  regions.     It  seemed,  how- 
ever, unlikely  on  this  hypothesis  to  assign  it  to  a  native  king 
of  Meli(e)dia,  because  the  names  of  four  of  its  last  native 
kings  appear  from  their  length  to  be  compound  names.    Cer- 
tainly the  last  of  these  kings  bears  a  compound  name,  while 
the  name  of  the  king  of  the  lion-hunt,  represented  as  it  is 
by  a  single  sign  (the  head  of  perhaps  a  horse  or  colt),  cannot 
be  a  compound.    Moreover,  the  name  found  on  the  Malatya 
slab    is   known  to  have  been  borne   by  no  fewer  than  three 
Hittite  monarchs,  the  one  mentioned  above,  a  king  of  Karke- 
mish,  and  the  king  of  the  inscription  found  at   Bor  west  of 
the  Taurus.    In  the  Assyrian  inscriptions,  on  the  other  hand, 
no   Hittite   king's   name  occurs  so  frequently  as  the   name 
Mut(d)allu,  which  is  found  there  as   the  name  of  three  dif- 
ferent kings.      The  same  name  occurs  perhaps  once  also  in 
Egyptian  inscriptions.      It  was  therefore  natural  to  suppose 
that  the  king's  name  in  the  lion-hunt  inscription  was  Mut- 
(d)allu.      In  the  last  years  of  the  pre-Assyrian  Hittite  rule 
we  know  of  two  kings  of  this  name,  kings  of  Gurgum   and 
Kommagene  respectively,  both  neighbor  states  of  Melitene. 
What  if  one  of  these  monarchs  for  a  time  had  held  Melitene 
also  ?     Winckler  had  already  surmised  this,  but  a  mistake 
in  his  edition  of  the  inscriptions  of  the  Assyrian   monarch 
Sargon  prevented  him  from  reaching  a  definite  knowledge. 
The  Paris  cast  examined  at  my  request  brought  the  needed 
certainty. 


780  EXPLORATIONS   IN   BIHLE  LANDS 

According  to  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  Mut(d)allu  of 
Kommagene  was  also  in  possession  of  Melitene  from  712  to 
708  B.  c.  Hence  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  probable  that 
he  is  the  king  of  the  lion-hunt.  Considerations  which  shall 
be  given  later  place  the  matter  beyond  any  doubt.  From 
Mut(d)allu's  inscription  we  get  the  word-group  for  Kom- 
magene and  Khati,  two  names  which  for  the  period  to  which 
the  inscription  presumably  belongs  have  been  preserved  to 
us  in  the  forms  Kummukhi  and  Khati(?). 

Four  inscriptions,  all  emanating  from  kings  of  the  same 
realm,  have  been  found  northwest  of  the  Taurus,  while  an- 
other apparently  cognate  with  them,  that  on  the  bowl,  has 
been  discovered  in  the  ruins  of  Babylon.  One  of  these 
monarchs,  according  to  his  inscription,  possessed  at  least  the 
territory  of  Karkemish  on  the  Euphrates,  if  not  Karkemish 
itself;  while  according  to  the  bowl  inscription,  another  of 
them,  perhaps  the  son  or  more  probably  the  grandson  of 
the  former,  was  in  possession  of  Karkemish  itself.  This 
bowl  inscription,  to  judge  from  its  character,  must  be  one 
of  the  very  latest  of  the  so-called  Hittite  inscriptions.  A 
king  who  bore  sway  at  once  over  the  land  west  of  the 
Taurus  and  over  the  lands  of  Karkemish  must  have  been 
lord  of  the  intervening  territory  of  Cilicia  also.  We  know 
nothing  of  a  temporary  conquest  of  Cilicia  in  post- Assyrian 
times,  to  which  date  the  inscription  in  question  must  belong, 
since  according  to  it  the  territory  of  Karkemish  is  neither 
independent  nor  yet  held  by  Assyria.  It  is  therefore 
highly  probable  that  the  kings  of  these  inscriptions  were 
kings  of  Cilicia  ruling  also  over  the  territory  beyond  the 
Taurus  to  the  west,  and  that  the  hieroglyph  for  their 
countrv  is  that  for  Cilicia,  the  native  form  of  which  name 
would  probably  be  Khilik  with  a  vowel  at  the  end,  to 
judge  from  the  Egyptian,  Assyrian,  and  Greek  translitera- 
tions. 

In  the  first  line  of  his  inscription,  one  of  these  kings,  per- 


DURING  Wrii   CENTURY:   HITTITES  781 

haps  the  earliest  of  the  series,  calls  himself  king,  not  of  Cilicia, 
but  of  something  that  perhaps  has  the  same  attribute  as 
occurs  in  connection  with  the  city  of  Karkemish  in  the 
Jerabis  inscriptions.  Unless,  therefore,  the  kings  of  Cilicia, 
like  those  of  Assyria,  for  instance,  bore  some  general  title  like 
"  king  of  the  whole  earth  "  or  the  like,  we  must  suppose 
that  Tarsus,  the  capital  of  Cilicia,  is  meant.  According  to 
the  Assyrian  and  Aramaic  writing  of  the  name  at  the  time 
to  which  the  inscription  belongs,  about  600  b.  c,  the  word 
must  have  been  pronounced  Tarz,  or  if  the  Biblical  "Tiras  " 
in  Gen.  10  be  identical  with  it,  must  have  had  the  con- 
sonants Trds.  This,  accordingly,  will  be  the  form  of  the 
name  in  the  inscription. 

There  is  one  title  which  amongst  all  the  Hittite  sovereigns 
is  peculiar  to  those  of  Cilicia.  In  the  word-group  which 
stands  for  it,  the  first  symbol  and  the  fourth  are  alike.  From 
the  frequency  with  which  it  occurs  this  symbol  must  have  a 
simple  phonetic  value.  As  it  is  not  one  of  the  vowel  signs, 
it  must  denote  a  simple  consonant.  At  least  three  Cilician 
kings  are  called  Syennesis  in  Greek.  Only  one,  the  father 
of  one  Syennesis,  has  a  different  name,  Oromedon.  From 
this  observation  it  has  been  surmised  for  a  considerable  time 
that  Syennesis  is  properly  a  title.  The  fact  that  in  Hero- 
dotus the  father  of  one  king  is  called  by  a  different  name 
need  cause  no  difficulty,  for  Syennesis  may  well  have  been 
the  designation  only  of  the  reigning  sovereign,  who  after 
death  recovered  his  proper  name,  while  his  former  title 
passed  to  his  successor.  This  title  Syennesis  (borne  by  the 
kings  of  Cilicia)  with  its  four  stem  consonants  :  s,  the  spiritus 
lenis  between  y  and  e,  which  we  and  the  Greek  do  not  write, 
n  and  s,  has  the  peculiarity  that  its  first  consonant  is  the 
same  as  the  fourth.  But  as  noted  above,  exactly  the  same 
is  the  case  with  the  Cilician  royal  title  in  the  so-called 
Hittite  inscriptions,  and  we  may  venture  therefore  to  read 
this  latter  as  Sy(u)ennes. 


782  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

All  these  readings  have  for  the  most  part  been  found  in- 
dependently. If  they  are  correct,  they  must  check  each 
other  to  some  extent  at  least.  That  is  to  say,  in  spite  of 
the  peculiarity  of  the  Hittite  characters  there  must  be  many 
cases  where  in  the  supposed  names  the  same  sound  will  be 
represented  in  the  corresponding  word-groups  by  the  same 
symbol.  This  is  in  fact  the  case.  Take  the  phonetic  word- 
group  for  Hamath  for  example,  which  begins  with  a  breath- 
ing. It  has  the  same  sign  in  the  first  position  as  the  group  for 
Sy'ennesis  in  the  second,  the  same  sign  in  the  second  posi- 
tion as  a  group  for  Karkemish  in  the  third,  after  the  symbol 
for  k  and  g,  and  the  same  in  the  third  as  the  group  for 
Khati(?)  in  the  last,  viz.,  the  sign  for  /  and  d.  A  similar  cor- 
respondence appears  in  the  groups  for  Karkemish  and  Cilicia; 
for  Karkemish  and  TAR-BI-BI-  or  TAR-QU -was heme, 
commonly  read  Tarqudimme  in  the  above  mentioned  bilin- 
gual of  "  Tarkondemos  ;  "  in  those  for  Gurgum  or  Mar'ash 
(with  r  as  second  consonant)  and  Tarz-(?)  ;  in  those  for  Syen- 
nesis  and  Tarz- :  in  fact,  the  correspondence  is  as  complete 
as  can  well  be  imagined,  and  the  reading  of  a  number  of 
proper  names  has  therefore  been  attained. 

A  foundation  had  thus  been  laid  for  the  reading  of  the 
inscriptions.  A  comparison  of  the  name-groups  fixed  the 
signs  for  k(o)m,  g(o)m,  etc.;  m(a)k,  m(a)g,  etc. ;  r,  k{g),  t{d)y 
m,  etc.  Employing  these  results  in  word-groups  with  a 
known  meaning,  I  discovered,  for  example,  that  the  genitive 
of  words  in  i  ends  in  two  vowels,  presumably  i  (or  e)  and  a 
(oro);  that  names  of  peoples  have  a  similar  termination; 
that  the  ending  of  the  genitive  plural  contains  the  consonant 
m;  that  '  and  a  sibilant  stand  for  "  I,"  while  two  vow^els, 
presumably  d  or  o  and  /  or  e,  and  a  sibilant  stand  for  "  this  ;  " 
that  mi  or  me  means  "  I  am  ; "  that  an  attribute  of  the  king 
and  the  lord  of  the  gods,  say  Sanda,  contains  a  /-sound  fol- 
lowed by  two  vowels,  probably  /  or  e,  that  a  word  for  "  son  " 
or  "  child  "  is  made  up  of  a  sibilant,  a  dental  and  r  for  its 


I) U KING   VJi'ii   CENTURY  :   HITTITES  783 

consonants,  a  word  for  "  country  "  of  a  labial  and  a  dental 
and  r>  a  word  for  "  great,"  or  the  like,  of  m  and  a  sibilant, 
and  so  on.  Before  we  were  able  to  make  any  definite  state- 
ment as  to  the  reading  of  the  inscriptions,  we  could  have 
surmised  that  the  Hittite  language  was  Armenian.  This 
is  a  surmise  no  longer  ;  the  actual  reading  of  the  inscrip- 
tions has  transformed  it  into  a  certainty.  For  almost  every- 
thing that  we  know  in  the  Hittite  tongue  is  Armenian,  or 
better,  Old-Armenian,  and  the  corresponding  forms  in  mod- 
ern Armenia  have  been  developed  out  of  the  former  pre- 
cisely according  to  the  known  laws  of  Armenian  phonetics. 

Thus  in  the  inscriptions  the  genitive  of  words  in  /  or  e  is 
/  or  e  and  a  or  o,  to  which  in  Armenian  corresponds  the 
ending  i  out  of  an  earlier  io  or  ia.  To  the  similar  ending 
for  names  of  peoples  in  Armenian  corresponds  /  out  of  an 
earlier  io.  "  I  "  is  in  the  inscriptions  followed  by  a  sibilant 
(and  a  vowel),  in  Armenian  it  is  d'j=  earlier  eso  or  edxo  or 
the  like  ;  "  this  "  in  the  inscription  is  a  or  o,  and  /  or  e  and 
a  sibilant,  in  Armenian  it  is  ais.  To  mi  or  me,  perhaps 
with  a  vowel  in  front,  meaning  "  am,"  corresponds  Arme- 
nian em  out  of  emi,  =  "  am  "  ;  to  the  attribute  of  the  kings 
and  the  supreme  god  composed  of  a  dental  and  i  or  e,  and 
another  /  or  e  corresponds  Armenian  U  in  Ur,  "  lord," 
"master,"  /.  e.,  t  e  -\-  ar  {^'^  imn"),  SLnd  in  tikin,  "lady," 
"mistress,"  /.  e.,  le -\-  kin  {='' woman");  to  the  word  for 
"  son  "  with  a  sibilant  and  a  dental  and  r  for  its  consonants 
corresponds  Armenian  usir,  "  son  "  ;  to  the  word  for  "  coun- 
try "  certainly  having  a  labial  and  a  dental  and  r  for  its  conso- 
nants corresponds  Armenian  X'^^r,  =  "  country,"  with  the 
meaning  of  Latin  rus,  also  "  place,"  which  of  course  has  the 
original  meaning  "  country,"  perhaps  out  of  an  earlier  form 
waiira,  while  to  the  word  for  "  great,"  or  the  like,  having 
as  consonants  m  and  a  sibilant,  corresponds  Armenian  mets, 
=  "  great,"  out  of  an  original  medzi,  and  so  on. 

With   this   newly   established  basis  to  work  upon  I  have 


784  EXPLORATIONS  IN   lilBLE  LANDS 

extended  my  field  of  operations,  succeeding  in  finding  new 
sound-values  and  further  meanings  of  words  which  could 
only  confirm  my  thesis.  Thus  I  have  been  able  to  read 
the  Hittite  word  for  "  king,"  apparently  arwa'i  =  Armenian 
ark'ay,  also  the  word  for  "  man,"  in  Hittite  written  r,  but 
read  aro  =  Armenian  ayr,  out  of  an  earlier  aro^  and  so  on. 

Under  such  circumstances  we  scarcely  need  this  addi- 
tional fact  that  the  phonetic  values  of  the  hieroglyphs,  so 
far  as  these  hieroglyphs  are  recognizable  as  pictures,  stand 
in  relation  to  certain  Armenian  words,  thus  showing  that 
the  Hittite  writing  was  invented  by  the  forefathers  of  the 
modern  Armenians. 

The  consonants,  for  which  the  hieroglyphs  stand,  corre- 
spond either  to  the  beginning  or  to  the  whole  of  those 
words  which  must  once  have  been  the  Armenian  names  for 
the  corresponding  pictures.  Thus  in  the  inscriptions  a 
pointed  shoe  stands  for  /  or  d^  while  in  Armenian  trekh 
means  a  peasant's  shoe  ;  a  calf's  head  representing  the 
whole  calf  stands  in  the  inscriptions  iox  po^pa^  etc.,  while  in 
Armenian  the  word  for  calf  is  ort  from  ea.r\iev  porL  More 
decisive  are  the  cases  where  the  correspondence  is  still  more 
complete.  For  example,  we  find  a  fascicle  with  the  phonetic 
value  t{d)  and  r,  while  Armenian  trt^sak  means  "  bundle ;  " 
the  head  of  the  horse  or  colt,  as  we  saw  above,  must  be  ap- 
proximately read  mudal  or  mutal^  while  "  colt  "  in  Armenian 
is  mtruk  {mtr-u  and  the  diminutive  ending)  out  of  an  earlier 
form  m-d-r  or  m-d-l  with  /  or  u  after  the  m.  Furthermore, 
the  picture  of  a  pine  tree  or  the  like,  or  a  tree  in  general,  is 
the  cryptogram  for  sar-  or  t{d)sar-^  meaning  "king,"  while 
saroy  in  Armenian  is  a  word  for  the  pine  or  the  like  (hardly 
a  Persian  loan-word),  and  tsar  means  "  tree." 

In  this  connection  we  mav  turn  to  the  inscription  referred 
to  above,  which  we  took  to  belong  to  a  king  Mut(d)allu  of 
Kommagene.  The  name  of  his  country,  /.  e.^  Kommagene 
(Kommoghi),  is  here  represented  by  two  hieroglyphs,  a  bull- 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:  HITTITES  785 

dog's  head  and  a  boar's  claw.  The  first  hieroglyph,  there- 
fore, must  probably  be  read  as  kom,  and  the  second  as  mogh. 
Now  the  Hittite  characters  do  not  distinguish  a  and  <?,  k 
and  g  or  gh  respectively,  while  the  Armenian  word  for  bull- 
dog is  gamp^r  and  that  for  claw  magil.  Thus  our  interpre- 
tation of  the  inscription  of  Mut(d)allu  confirms  our  thesis 
that  the  authors  of  the  Hittite  characters,/.  ^.,  of  course  the 
Hittites  themselves,  were  of  Armenian  stock.  And  this  in 
turn  bears  out  the  correctness  of  our  interpretation. 

It  is  evident  from  the  above  that  the  Hittite  symbols 
or  signs  sometimes  represented  the  full  consonantal  value 
of  the  corresponding  word,  sometimes  only  the  beginning  of 
it,  and  that  therefore  in  the  creation  of  symbols  for  single 
sounds  or  syllables  the  principle  of  acrophony  was  em- 
ployed. 

The  knowledge  acquired  goes  far  to  determine  the  native 
appellation  of  the  Hittites,  and  this  again,  which  is  a  circum- 
stance to  be  welcomed,  provides  us  with  a  new  argument 
for  the  Hittite  and  Armenian  relationship,  thus  supporting 
our  hypothesis.  One  of  the  kings  of  Hamath,  the  kings 
of  Karkemish,  one  of  Gurgum,  another  who  has  left  us  an 
inscription  found  at  Izgin  north  of  Mar'ash,  one  king  of 
Cilicia,  the  same  to  whom  the  inscription  upon  the  bowl 
refers,  another  king  one  of  whose  inscriptions  has  been  dis- 
covered at  Kolitolu  in  Lycaonia,  the  author  of  an  inscrip- 
tion from  Beikoi  in  ancient  Phrygia,  and  perhaps  the  man 
to  whom  the  inscription  recently  discovered  at  Babylon 
refers,  call  themselves,  or  are  called,  X,  or  X  son  of  an  X, 
or  grandson  of  an  X.  This  X  is  differently  written.  When 
written  phonetically,  with  perhaps  two  exceptions,  its  first 
symbol  is  a  hand  grasping  a  knife.  Then  mav  come  a  shoe, 
the  sign  for  a  dental,  while  the  vowels  following,  which  in 
nominative  at  least  are  /  or  e  and  o  or  ^,  may  be  left  out. 
This  phonetic  writing  alternates  with  the  ideographical  one  : 
a  man's  head  with    a  handle  or   pole  attached,  where  the 


786  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

handle  or  pole  stands  for  the  full  human  figure  below  the 
head.  This  mav  mean  one  ot  two  things,  either  a  human 
being  in  general  or  a  member  of  the  people  of  the  inscrip- 
tions ;  but  it  does  not  stand  for  either  man  or  woman,  the 
hieroglyphs  for  which  are  different.  If,  however,  the  kings 
mentioned  above  feel  it  incumbent  upon  them  to  call  them- 
selves in  their  inscriptions  X  son  of  an  X,  the  first  alterna- 
tive maybe  dismissed,  X  accordingly  meaning  one  belonging 
to  the  people  in  question,  whose  national  name  has  a  dental 
as  its  last  consonant. 

It  is  a  fact  that  a  very  large  number  of  the  inscriptions 
come  from  the  country  of  Khate  ;  and  it  is  also  true  that 
just  as  we  know  of  no  people  with  a  like  appellation,  we 
know  in  those  parts  of  no  other  country  the  name  of  which 
could  occur  in  all  the  inscriptions  mentioned  above,  and  at  the 
same  time  have  a  dental  as  its  final  consonant.  Hence  it  is 
enticing  to  see  in  the  name  of  our  people,  ending  as  it  does 
in  a  dental  and  /  or  e  and  a  or  o,  3.  form  derived  from  Khate 
with  the  old  Armenian  ending  io,  thus  justifying  the  name 
Hittite  to  some  extent.  The  inscriptions  themselves,  how- 
ever, provide  no  convincing  proof  for  this  reading.  But 
here  the  relationship  of  the  speech  of  the  inscriptions  with 
Armenian  seems  to  intervene  in  our  behalf  We  saw  that 
in  the  phonetic  writing  of  X,  the  shoe,  which  is  the  symbol 
for  /  or  ^,  can  be  left  out  at  pleasure.  Hence  it  serves  here 
as  a  mere  phonetic  complement ;  that  is  to  say,  it  signifies 
part  of  the  reading  of  the  sign  which  precedes,  indicating 
that  the  hand  with  the  knife  has  a  phonetic  value  in  which 
a  dental  is  the  last  consonant.  The  hand  with  the  knife 
represents  the  idea  of  cutting.  In  the  event  of  the  char- 
acter having  been  invented  by  predecessors  of  the  Arme- 
nians, its  phonetic  value  will  therefore  connect  itself  with  an 
Old-Armenian  word  for  "  to  cut."  "  To  cut  "  in  Arme- 
nian being  hatanel  (with  the  stem  hat)^  the  hand  with  the 
knife  should  apparently  be  read   as  h{a)t  or    h(a)d.     The 


DURING  19TH  CENTURY:   HITTITES  787 

name  of  the  people  of  the  inscriptions  accordingly  seems  to 
be  Hatio. 

When  I  was  laying  the  first  foundation  for  the  decipher- 
ment of  the  inscriptions  and  had  just  recognized  the  Ar- 
menian character  of  the  speech,  I  conceived  the  idea  that 
the  native  name  of  the  Armenians,  Hay^  in  plural  Hayk\ 
probably  went  back  to  a  form  Hatio^  according  to  the  laws 
of  Armenian  phonetics  ;  but  this  was  a  pure  hypothesis 
which  the  inscriptions  failed  to  substantiate.  Proof,  how- 
ever, now  appearing  to  be  forthcoming,  I  am  forced  to  de- 
clare that  I  hold  the  above  views  until  further  notice.  The 
difference  between  the  Kh  of  Khate  and  the  H  of  Hay  is 
not  fatal  to  my  theory  and  may  be  easily  got  over. 

Nevertheless  it  must  be  stated  that  /;  in  the  beginning 
of  Armenian  words  may  go  back  to  p  or  s.  Very  possibly, 
therefore,  Armenian  hat-anel  originally  began  with  a ^,  which 
at  the  time  of  our  inscriptions  does  not  yet  seem  to  have 
become  h  as  in  modern  Armenian,  But  if  at  the  time  of 
our  inscriptions  the  root  hat^  meaning  "  to  cut,"  was  per- 
haps still  pronounced  as  pad^  the  hieroglyph  for  "  to  cut  " 
in  the  same  way  could  only  be  read  as  p[a)d  or  p(a)t,  and 
not  as  h{a)t.  In  this  case  the  name  of  the  people  of  our 
inscriptions  would  be  Patio,  not  Hatio,  and  could  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  name  of  the  country  Khate  and  the 
name  Hittite  derived  from  it.  Moreover  it  is  worthv  of 
remark  that  three  times  in  an  inscription  we  find  a  word 
with  a  labial  and  a  dental  as  consonants  which  it  seems  pos- 
sible, though  not  likely,  to  identify  with  the  national  name 
of  the  people  of  our  inscriptions.  On  the  other  hand,  how- 
ever, we  must  not  omit  to  mention  that  in  two  inscriptions 
we  meet  with  a  succession  of  symbols  (those  for  ',  /  and  ') 
which  possibly  might  have  been  used  to  denote  a  word 
Hatio. 

Be  this  as  it  mav,  whether  Hatio  or  Patio  is  the  form  we 
are  looking  for,  so  much  is  certain,  that  the   name  of  the 


788  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

people  of  our  inscriptions  has  the  same  consonants,  or  con- 
sonants of  the  same  class,  as  the  Armenian  word  for  "  to 
cut  "  once  had,  viz.,  p  or  h  or  even  s  and  /  or  d,  that  there- 
fore Armenian  Hay  =  "  Armenian,"  out  of  Halio,  and  this 
again  perhaps  out  of  Pano  or  perhaps  Satio,  goes  back  to 
the  national  designation  of  the  people  of  our  inscriptions. 
This  is  a  fresh  confirmation  of  our  theory  that  the  Hit- 
tites  are  the  ancestors  of  the  modern  Armenians. 

Their  history  is  the  early  history  of  the  Armenians  ;  their 
civilization,  their  belief,  and  their  religion  are  the  civilization, 
the  belief,  and  the  religion  of  the  ancestors  of  the  Armenians. 
What  we  learn  of  these  can  in  future  count  upon  the  inter- 
est of  all  educated  men. 

The  inscriptions  and  works  of  art  discovered  bear  wit- 
ness as  to  their  civilization.  They  indicate  a  mastery  of 
the  technique  of  sculpture  which  in  part  is  very  remarka- 
ble. But  as  others  have  written  at  length  upon  these  points, 
it  is  here  unnecessary  to  discuss  them. 

Until  recentlv  all  that  we  knew  of  their  religion  came 
from  the  study  of  their  sculptured  monuments,  but  now  we 
learn  something  from  the  inscriptions  as  well.  At  the  head 
of  their  Pantheon  stands  the  lord  of  the  heavens,  the  god 
of  the  sky,  the  dispenser  of  the  blessings  of  the  fields  ;  he 
is  called  "  the  lord,"  or  "  the  supreme  one,"  "  the  grea.t papa 
ox  baba^'  i.  e.,  of  course,"  father,"  —  compare  the  Phrygian 
Zevs  ndTras  —  also  the  "  lord  of  Khate-Hati,"  etc.  His  con- 
sort is  "  the  great  ma  a  (  =  M5),"  that  is,  of  course,  "  mother," 
also  called  "  the  great  goddess."  Her  paramour,  probably 
a  sun-god,  is  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  figures  of  the 
Pantheon.  Beside  them  stands  a  number  of  other  gods, 
some  of  whom  are  also  mentioned  in  the  inscriptions.  The 
principal  figures  are  immigrants  from  Syria,  and  one  at  least, 
viz.,  "  the  great  mother,"  did  not  stay  her  course  among 
the  "  Hittites,"  but  with  her  lover  passed  on  into  Phrygia. 
How  from  Phrvgia  her  cult  spread  farther  over  the  West  is 


DUEIXG   IDTii   CENTURY:   IIITTJTES  789 

familiar  to  all.  In  the  worship  of  the  V^irgin  in  our  own 
day  there  seems  still  to  live  the  same  force  which  in  a  hoary 
antiquity  was  active  in  Syria,  and  which  the  "Hittites"  in 
Asia  Minor  may  well  have  helped  pass  down.  Moreover, 
this  cult  also  flourished,  where  we  may  at  least  venture  to 
look  for  it,  I'/z.,  in  Armenia.  It  is  true  that  in  pre- 
Christian  times  an  Iranian  cult  predominated  here,  not 
without  modifications  however,  which  can  be  completely 
explained  on  the  hypothesis  that  it  was  grafted  upon  a 
native  Old-Armenian,  /,  e.,  "  Hittite  "  foundation.  What 
in  the  Armenian  religion  is  not  Persian  is,  unless  of  Syrian, 
of"  Hittite  "  origin. 

How  far  back  we  can  trace  the  history  of  the  "  Hittite  "- 
Armenians  is  still  uncertain.  We  do  not  know  whether  a 
king  ot  Great  Khate,  mentioned  by  Thothmes  III,  of  Egvpt 
about  1500  B.  c,  belongs  to  the  same  race  or  not.  About 
1400  B.  c,  in  Palestine,  we  find  two  men  with  names  which 
appear  to  be  Indogermanic,  and  therefore  may  possibly  be 
Armenian,  viz.,  Shuar-data  and  Wash  (Yash  or  Ash)-data, 
where  da^a  can  also  represent  daio  or  doto.  The  names 
may  accordingly  mean  "  given  by  Shuar  or  Wash  (Yash  or 
Ash)  "  respectively.  We  certainly  find  people  of  Indoger- 
manic blood,  and  therefore  probably  Armenians,  in  the  army 
of  King  Khate-sere  of  Khate,  who  flourished  about  the  year 
1300  B.  c. ;  but  whether  this  monarch  himself  and  his  coun- 
trymen were  "  Hittite  "-Armenians  must  remain  an  open 
question.  In  such  an  event  the  name  pronounced  by  the 
Egyptians  approximately  Khatesere  might  represent  a  na- 
tive name  Hatiseri-s  =  "  Hati-Ioving,"  corresponding  to 
Armenian  hayaser. 

About  1200  B.  c.  the  inscriptions  begin.  The  very  fact 
of  their  existence  proves  that  about  looo  b.  c.  at  least 
Hamath-Hama  and  Karkemish  were  in  possession  of  the 
"  Hittites."  But  of  a  "  Hittite  "  empire  in  Syria  we  know 
as  little  as  do  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  of  the  first  thou- 

58 


790  EXPLORATIONS  IN    BIBLE  LANDS 

sand  years  antedating  our  era.  At  this  period  there  were 
only  petty  "  Hittite  "  states.  The  inscriptions  lead  us  to 
suppose  that  the  conquest  of  Syria  and  the  district  to  the 
north,  with  the  apparent  exception  of  Karkemish,  in  all 
probability  proceeded  from  Cilicia,  for  several  distinct  kings 
of  this  group  call  themselves  Cilicians,  and  Cilicia  is  spoken 
of  in  several  of  their  inscriptions,  even  in  cases  when  an 
actual  connection  with  Cilicia  is  out  of  the  question.  The 
inscriptions  prove  the  Cilicians  to  have  been  a  subdivision 
of  the  "  Hittites."  Sargon  of  Assyria  (722-705  b.  c.)  put 
an  end  to  the  "  Hittite  "  rule  over  the  country  east  of  the 
Taurus. 

At  what  date  the  Hittites  or  their  kindred  first  appeared 
in  the  district  west  of  the  Taurus  remains  still  unsettled. 
From  considerations  stated  above  it  does  not  seem  impos- 
sible that  the  so-called  Pseudo-Sesostris  in  the  pass  of  Kar- 
abel  near  the  coast  of  the  i^gean  Sea  dates  from  before 
1200  B.  c.  Somewhere  about  850  b.  c.  and  later  there  flour- 
ished in  Cappadocia  a  kingdom,  perhaps  called  Khamani, 
the  kings  of  which  have  left  us  the  magnificent  Hittite  sculp- 
tures and  inscriptions  at  Boghazkoi. 

When  the  universal  empire  of  the  Assyrians,  which  had 
absorbed  the  petty  "  Hittite  "  states,  was  shattered  to  pieces, 
orperhaps  a  little  earlier,  the  '"  Hittite  "  nation  lifted  its  head 
once  more.  It  was  led  by  Cilician  kings  under  whom,  per- 
haps 800  years  before  or  even  earlier,  it  had  settled  south- 
east and  north  from  the  mount  of  Amanus.  About  600 
B.  c.  we  find  a  "  Hittite"  king  of  Cilicia,  the  king  ot  the 
Bulgharmaden  inscription,  whose  dominions,  besides  Cilicia 
proper,  south  of  the  Taurus,  include  Cataonia  to  the  west, 
Khate  to  the  east  of  the  Taurus,  and  the  territory  of  Kar- 
kemish on  the  Euphrates  to  the  east.  He  styles  himself 
perhaps  also  supreme  lord  of  the  Lvcaonians,  just  as  he 
does  of  the  "  Hittites."  Another  king  of  Cilicia  has  left 
an  inscription  found  in  ancient  Lycaonia  in  which   he  per- 


DURING  lOT'i  CENTURY:   HITTITES  791 

haps  Styles  himself  king  of  Lycaonia.  Between  Kaisariye 
(Caesarea)  and  the  Taurus  there  has  been  discovered  an 
epitaph  of  a  relatively  late  date,  belonging  to  a  Cilician,  son 
of  a  Cilician. 

This  expansion  of  the  Cilician  power  in  the  final  period 
is  attested  by  Greek  writers  of  later  date.  It  explains  how 
a  Syennesis  of  Cilicia,  in  conjunction  with  a  contemporary 
king  of  Babylon,  undertook  to  reconcile  Alyattes  of  Lydia 
and  Kyaxares  of  Media.  He  of  course  divided  the  suprem- 
acy of  Asia  Minor  with  Alyattes  and  was  the  neighbor  of 
the  Babylonian  monarch.  It  is  also  not  improbable  that 
the  expedition  of  Necho,  king  of  Kgypt,  undertaken  in  the 
direction  of  Karkemish,  was  directed  not  against  Nebu- 
chadrezzar of  Babylon,  but  against  a  Cilician  king  to  whom 
Karkemish  already  belonged,  and  whom  Nebuchadrezzar 
came  to  assist. 

The  latest  inscriptions  date  probably  from  about  550  b.  c. 
It  is  in  the  highest  degree  probable  that  the  "  Hittite  " 
characters  were  superseded  by  the  Aramaic  during  the 
Persian  period.  The  supremacy  then  established  in  those 
parts  by  Persia  may  also  explain  why  no  further  inscriptions 
of  Cilician  kings  have  been  forthcoming  since  that  time. 
After  550  B.  c,  all  that  we  know  of  the  Indogermanic  in- 
habitants of  Cilicia  is  contained  in  Cilician  proper  names  of 
a  later  date. 

Some  time  about  500  b.  c.  we  find  Indogermanic  "  Hit- 
tite "-Armenians  in  Western  Armenia.  By  what  route 
they  effected  their  entrance,  or  at  what  date,  we  do  not  know. 
It  is  not  improbable  that,  as  I  suggested  some  years  ago, 
the  Cimmerian  invasion  into  Asia  Minor  pushed  them  m 
this  direction,  and  it  is  possible  that  their  native  seat  of 
Khate  was  the  starting  point  of  this  displacement  of  the 
Armenian  people.  It  is  equally  possible,  however,  that  as 
we  also  have  found  a  Hittite  in  ancient  Phrygia,  these 
Armenian   immigrants  came   from   the  west.     This  would 


792  EXPLORATIONS  IN  BIBLE  LANDS 

confirm  certain  traditions  of  antiquity  according  to  which  the 
Armenians  originally  came  from  Phrygia,  their  speech  re- 
sembling that  of  the  Phrygians.  Such  traditions,  however, 
in  themselves  are  not  too  worthy  of  credence,  and  this  coin- 
cidence is  scarcely  required. 

A  word  may  be  expected  as  to  the  Hittites  of  Palestine 
mentioned  in  the  Bible.  This  is  a  difficult  question,  and 
its  solution  is  still  to  be  sought.  We  know  that  according 
to  the  Old  Testament  Abraham  found  Hittites  in  Hebron, 
Hittites  being  counted  among  the  original  inhabitants  of 
Palestine,  while  Ezekiel  refers  to  the  father  of  Jerusalem  as 
an  Amorite  but  to  its  mother  as  a  Hittite.  The  Egyptian 
and  cuneiform  inscriptions  give  us  no  commentary  upon 
this,  unless  it  be  the  circumstance  that  a  Philistine  king's 
name  is  perhaps  identical  with  a  name  found  in  North  Syria, 
and  the  fact  that  the  Philistines  are  perhaps  descended 
from  a  pirate  people  mentioned  in  the  Egyptian  inscrip- 
tions as  coming  from  the  north. 

This,  however,  is  not  sufficient  to  enable  us  definitely  to 
pronounce  upon  the  problem  raised  by  these  Hittites,  viz., 
did  a  section  of  the  inhabitants  of  Khate  in  North  Syria 
really  at  any  time  settle  in  Palestine?  Or,  what  is  still  more 
doubtful,  are  we  to  understand  by  the  Hittites  of  Palestine 
merely  a  particular  race  cognate  with  the  people  of  our 
inscriptions  ?  As  stated  above,  the  mere  name  tells  us 
nothing  as  to  the  nationality  of  the  people,  l^his  much  we 
may  venture  to  say,  that  we  find  in  Palestine,  about  the 
year  1400  b.  c,  people  with  names  which  to  all  appearance 
are  Indogermanic,  and  theretore  may  possibly  be  ancient 
Armenians.  But  that  thev  and  their  countrvmen  were  ever 
settled  there  in  great  close  corporations  is  a  supposition 
\\  hich  lacks  proof.  So  much  for  the  primitive  history  of 
the  Hittite-Armenians, 

The  deciphering  of  the  so-called  Hittite  inscriptions  thus 
opens  to  us   the  archives  of  an  ancient  people,  giving  us 


DURING  lO'ii   CENTURY:   HITTITES  793 

authentic  information  as  to  their  history,  language,  and  reli- 
gion. This  is  a  feat  remarkable  enough  in  itself,  but  that 
this  people  should  prove  to  be  the  ancestors  of  the  modern 
Armenians  makes  the  matter  still  more  remarkable.  Our 
new  knowledge  throws  light  upon  many  centuries  of  Arme- 
nian history  and  of  the  Armenian  tongue  which  up  till  now 
had  remained  in  total  darkness.  Moreover,  the  Hittite 
inscriptions  must  be  regarded  as  the  most  ancient  monu- 
ments of  our  Indogermanic  speech,  and  as  the  oldest  na- 
tive documents  of  Indogermanic  history.  If  the  dispute 
be  justified  as  to  whether  Asia  or  Europe  is  the  original 
home  of  the  Indogermanic  nations,  the  fact  that  about 
loco  B.  c,  if,  indeed,  not  much  earlier,  Armenians  were 
settled  in  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  perhaps  even  Palestine, 
must  eventually  influence  its  settlement. 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


Abdi-Kheba,  loyalty  and  letter  of,  620—621 

Abdul-Aziz,  Wahhabite  ruler,  702. 

Abeshum,  tablets  of,  311. 

Abraham,  his  family  worship,  745. 

Abu  Adhem,  columns  of,   340. 

Abu  Habba,  discoveries  at,  268-272  ;  ruins 
of,  265  ;  excavations  at,  273-275  ;  Turk- 
ish gleanings  at,  568-577. 

Abu  Hammad,  location  of,  650. 

Abu  Hatab,  exploration  of,   538. 

Abulfeda,  Arabian  geographer,   11. 

Abu  Shahrain,  Taylor's  excavations  at,  178  ; 
discoveries  at,  178-181. 

Abusir,  pyramidal  ruin  near,  642,  653  ; 
monument  in,  663. 

Abydos,  discovery  of  temple  ol  Seti  I.  at,  and 
"  List  of  Kings,"  637  ;  AmL-lineau's  re- 
searches at,  642. 

Accho,  Hebrew  name  of  Roman  Ptolemais, 
586. 

Adad-ap[al-]idinnam,  King,  49. 

Adadniriri,  ill  ;  palace  of,  112;  statue  of, 
130. 

Adoni-Bezek,  battle  with,  620. 

Adraha,  location  of,  594. 

Afej,  swamps  of,  361. 

Aftimus,  Dr.  Selim,  native  doctor,  320  ;  sick- 
ness of,  325. 

Agrippa  I.,  wall  of,  at  Jerusalem,  606. 

Ahab,  King,  mention  of,  on  Moabite  stone, 
612. 

Ahaz,  King,  water  system  of,  614. 

Ahaziah,  king  of  Israel,  612. 

Ahhotep,  tomb  of,  684. 

Ai,  Babylonian  moon  goddess,  734. 

Ainsworth,  in  Euphrates  Expedition,  58-63. 

Akabah,  ui  line  of  research,  587. 

Akerblad  interprets  Rosetta  stone  inscriptions, 
629. 

Akkad,  place  of  Naram-Sin,  739. 

Akrak,  inscriptions  of,  757;  date  of,  764. 

Albert,  Emmanuel  de  St.,  observations  of,  17- 
18. 

Aleppo,  inscriptions  of,  157. 

Alexander  the  Great,  place  of  death,  30  ; 
sarcophagus  of,  618. 

Allen,  Master,  measurements  of,   16. 

Alyattes,  king  of  Lydia,  791. 


Amasis,  King,   builder  of  sanctuaries  at  Tell 

Nebeshe,  647  ;   founder  of  Naukratis,  651. 
American  excavations  at  Nuffar,  289. 
American  expedition  proposed  by  Oriental  So- 
ciety, 290. 
American     Institute    of   Archa-ology,    school 

of,  at  Jerusalem,  622. 
American     Oriental     Society,    a     pioneer     in 

Assvriologv,  290. 
American     Philosophical      Society      publishes 

Series  A  of  Babylonian  antiquities,  347. 
Amelineau,    excavates  at   Abydos,   642  ;   rich 

discoveries  of,   678. 
Amenemhat  II.,  tomb  of,  650. 
Amenemhat  III.,  king  of  12th  Dynasty,  644  ; 

burial  place  ot,  659. 
Amenophis  I.,  tomb  of,  discovered,  642,  684. 
Amenophis    III.,    time    of,    620  ;     tomb    of, 

688. 
Amenophis  IV.,  era  of,  620,  633  ;   tablets  of, 

641  ;   builder  of  El-'Amarna,  674. 
Ammisadugga,  tablets  of,   311. 
Ammisatana,  tablets  of,  311. 
Ammon,  ruins  of,  90. 
Ammon,  kinship  of,  with  Hebrews,  742. 
Amosis,  tomb  of,  684. 
Anbar,  speculation  as  to  site  of,  298. 
Andaval,  inscriptions   of,  757  ;   date  of,  764. 
An-Kurah,  Sabean  god  of  hate,  734. 
Ansalmareos,  see  Salmon. 
Antiochus,  Soter,    restores   Nebo's  sanctuarv, 

265. 
Aphrodite,  sanctuary  of,  at  Naukratis,  652. 
Apis,  bulls  of,  burial  place  at  Memphis,  634; 

tombs  of,  635. 
Apollo,  sanctuary  of,  at  Naukratis,  652. 
Apostles,  time  of,  583. 
Appenzell,  Canton  of,  588. 
Aqarquf,  4  ;   Tower  of  Babel,  i  5  ;   ruins  of, 

38,  39,  55- 
Arab,  how  related  to  Hebrew,  742. 
Arabia,    extent  of,    693  ;   caravans   in,    693- 

694  ;  physical  features  of,  694-696  ^ 
Arabia    Felix,    694  ;    water   system,  694— 

695  ;  archaeological  results  in,  697  ;  ex- 
ploring expeditions  in,  698-726  ;  character 
of  inscriptions,  728  ;  religious  features  of 
inscriptions,  732-734  ;  gods  of,  732-736  j 


796 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


ethnology  of,  734-736  ;  how  identified 
with  Kush,  742. 

Arabic  language  and  traditions,  586. 

Aramaic,  Old,  inscriptions,  765. 

Aramean  nationality,   743. 

Archa-ological  results  at  Jerusalem,  607-621. 

Archaeological  Institute  ot  America  controls 
the  Wolfe  expedition  to  Babylonia,  290. 

Archsology,  American  Institute  of,  622. 

Ard  Babel,  significance  of,   19. 

Aristotle,  his  Constitution  of  Athens,  626. 

Armenian,  speech,  777,  783-784;  relation- 
ship with  Hittites,  785,  788  ;  language, 
787  ;   religion,  789. 

Arnaud,  Thomas  J.,  his  Arabian  journeys, 
704,  730-732.^ 

Arnold,  Edwin,  interpreter  of  public  senti- 
ment,  192. 

Arsinoe,  later  Greek  name  for  the  Fayum, 
665. 

Asfar,  J.,  councillor,  217. 

Asherah,  Canaanite  goddess,  750. 

Ashkelon,  obelisks  of,  619. 

As(h)taroth,  city  of  Og,  596. 

Ashur,  Arabian  district,  743. 

Ashurbanapal,  library  of,  32,  135  5  palace  dis- 
covered by  Rassam,  132-136;  annals  of, 
136;  north  palace,  265;  restorer  of  tem- 
ple of  Bel,  312;  original  constructions  of, 
332;  inscriptions  of,  737;  campaign 
against  Arabs,  741. 

Ashuretililini,  king  of  Assyria,  his  building, 
112;   tablets  of,  3  10. 

Ashurnasirapal,  sculptures  of,  105,  107  ; 
palace  of,  1 1 1  ;  obelisk  of,  i  3  i  ;  legend 
of,  194. 

Asia  Minor,  inscriptions  of,  755-756. 

Asshur,  heirs  of,  6  ;   builder  of  Nineveh,  8. 

Assyria,  resurrection  of,  3  ;  plains  of,  9  ;  in- 
scriptions of,  740,  763. 

"Assyrian  Discoveries,"  by  Smith,  199. 

Assyrian  excavations,  revival  of  interest  in, 
187. 

Assyrian  Museum,  first  in  Europe,  79. 

Assyrian  palaces,  discovery  of,  73. 

Assyriology,  interesting  the  American  people 
in,  289-293. 

Assyro-Babylonian  writings,  765,  767,  770. 

Ataroth,  taken  by  King  Mesha,  612. 

Athtar,  Minean  male  deity,   733. 

Atum,  god,  status  of,  649-650. 

Azekah  supposed  Old  Testament  site  of  Tell 
Lakariya,  which  see. 

Ba'al  =  Sun,  Canaanite  deity,  734. 

Babel,    heirs   of,    6  ;   Tower  of,    described  by 

Benjamin  of  Tudela,  13  ;   as  a  village,   13  ; 

Tower  of,  described  by  Eldred,  15. 
B.ibil,  northern  mound,  28  ;    Layard  at,  158  ; 

aspect  of,  1 66- 1  67. 


Babylon,  type  of  power,  3  ;  vanished,  6  ;  re- 
discovery of,  7-22  ;  tradirions  as  to  loca- 
tion, I  2  ;  summary  of  writers  upon,  i  3  n.  ; 
first  dynasty  of,  548  ;  archa-ologv  of,  com- 
pared with  that  of  Palestine,  607,  608  , 
inscriptions  from,  756-757  ;  date  of,  756, 
766. 

Babylonia,  resurrection  of,  3  ;  present  aspect, 
4  ;  ferrility  of,  4  ;  at  various  seasons,  5  ; 
scenes  in,  6  ;  population  of,  41  ;  methodi- 
cal excavations  in,  213-215  ;  gods  of,  734  ; 
inscriptions  of,  737. 

Babylonian,  coffins  secured,  143  ;  art,  250- 
255;  civilization,  early  cradle  of,  282; 
expedition  of  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
history  of,  294  ;  Exploration  Fund  created, 
299  ;  expedition  organized,  299  ;  expedi- 
tion, officers  of,  299-300  ;  "  Expedition 
of  University  of  Pa.,"  edited  by  H.  V. 
Hilprecht,  Series  A,  347. 

Bachylides,  poems  of,  6,  26. 

Baethgen's  "  History   of  Semitic    Religion," 

753- 

Baghdad,  rise  of,  12. 

Bahrain,  ancient  sea  country  of  the  Babylon- 
ians, 696,  738,  743. 

Balawat(d),  mound  of,  206. 

Balbi,  observations  of,  14. 

Ball,  Hittite  researches  of,   771. 

Ballas,  discoveries  near,  641. 

Basilica  of  the  Resurrection,  site  of,  598. 

Bashan,  survev  and  map  of,   595. 

Basra,  city  of,  21  6. 

Bast  (Gr.  Bubastis  ;  Tell  Busta),  see  Bubas- 
tis,  646. 

Bavian,  expedition  to,   116. 

Bazu  =  Buz  of  O.  T.,  740. 

Beauchamp,  Abbe  de,  observations  of,  19—21  ; 
map,  35.  ^ 

Beckri's  dictionarv,  699,  736. 

Beddoe  discovers  figure  of  Sesostris,  753. 

Bedouin,  songs  of,  706. 

Behistun,  rock  and  inscription  of,  71. 

Beikoi,  inscriptions  of,  757,  785. 

Beirut,  inline  of  research,  586-587. 

Beishehr,  Lake  of,  757. 

Bel,  temple  site  of,  in  Nippur,  307  ;  cult  of, 
307  ;  =  En-lil,  464. 

Belbes,  location  of,  650. 

Bellino,   M.,   secretary,  37  ;  observations  ot, 

49-  .    . 

Bel-shar-usur,  Biblical  Belshazzar,   175. 

Beltis,  the  goddess,  528. 

Belus,  Temple  of,   19  ;   Tower  of,  30. 

Benjamin  of  Tudela,  travels  of,  7  ;  describes 
the  Tower  of  Babel,  13. 

Bent,  J.  Theodore,  visits  Frankincense  Coun- 
try, 724-725. 

Bethshean,  Hebrew  name  of  Roman  Skytho- 
polis,  586. 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


797 


Bet  Ras,  ruins  of,  594. 

Bewsher,    Lieut.,    views  of,    65  ;   explorations 

of,  66-69. 
Bezo'ld's  "  Catalogue  of  Cuneiform  Tablets," 

53°- 
Biahmu,  Petrie's  explorations  at,  667. 

Bi-lingual  inscriptions,  770. 

Bint  el-Amir,  364  ;  mound  of,  306-307  ; 
conical  hill  of,  described,  327  ;  excavations 
at  and  views  on,  32.7-335  ;  description  of, 
438  5   discoveries  at,  449  ;   tomb  at,  504. 

Birejik,  inscriptions  from,  757. 

Birlcet-^arun,  identified  with  Lake  Moeris, 
667-669. 

Birs  (Nimrud),  ruins  of,  13,  30-31  ;  ety- 
mology of,  4  3 . 

Black  Sea,  Xcnophon's  march  to,  7. 

Bliss,  discoveries  of,  at  Jerusalem,  603,  609. 

Blunt,  Lady  Anne,  her  Arabian  tour,  714. 

Boeventing,  reference  of,  to  Babylon,   16. 

Boghazkiii,  inscriptions  of,  756-757  5  sculp- 
tures of,  762;  character  and  date  of  in- 
scriptions, 763-764. 

Bor,  inscriptions  of,  757  ;   date  of,  764. 

Borchardt,  work  of,  at  Philae,  642. 

Borsippa,  tower  of,  1 69  ;  temple  ot,  described, 
186. 

Bostan  esh-Shaikh,  inscriptions  of,  253. 

Botta,  Paul  Emil,  researches  of,  73-81  ;  dis- 
coveries ot,  65. 

Boutcher,  artist,   I  36-1  38. 

Brugsch,  Emil,  his  work  in  Egypt,  686. 

Bubastis,  excavations  at,  636-637  ;  sanctua- 
ries of,  644  5   ruins  of,  646. 

Buckingham,  observations  of,  30-31  ;  visits 
Mosul,  36  ;  views  of,  38  ;  reclaims  an- 
cient canals,  41. 

Budge,  Wallis  E.  A.,  visits  of,  to   the   East, 

Bulgharmaden,    inscriptions    of,     757,     790  ; 

date  of,   I  2. 
Bunene,  attendant  of  Shamash,  269. 
Bunsen,  Karl  J.  von,  deciphers  hieroglyphics, 

631. 
Burckhardt,    Arabian    traveller,    698,     702  5 

discovers  inscripitions,  756. 
Burnaburiyash,  Cassite  king,   I  54. 
Burnouf,  Eugene,  23. 
Bur-Sin  I.,  discovery  of  shrine  of,  336. 
Bur-Sin  of  Nisin,  bricks  of,  332. 
Burton,  Richard,  Arabian  pilgrimages  of,  706  ; 

his  works  on  Midian,  706,  714  ;   work  of, 

on  Hamath  inscriptions,  756. 
Bute,  extinction  of,  644. 
Buweriye,  mound  of,  145. 
Buz,  country  of,  748. 

C.-^LAH,  Biblical  city,  109;  (Nimrud)  identi- 
fied, III  ;  royal  palace  of,  282. 
Campaign,   first,   oi    Philadelphia  Expedition, 


history  of,  297-319;  first,  closing  of, 
314-317  ;  second,  of  Philadelphia  Expedi- 
tion, 319-345  ;  third,  of  Philadelphia  Ex- 
pedition,  345-568. 

Canaan,  language  ot,  621  ;  chief  deity  of, 
734  ;   intercourse  with  Babylon,  744-745. 

Canals,  412. 

Canning,  Sir  Stratford,  British  ambassador,  92. 

Capitolias,  location  of,  594. 

Carchemish,  see  Karkemish. 

Cartwright,  John,  travels  of,  9  ;  locates  and 
describes  Mosul  and  Nineveh,  9  ;  reference 
of,  to  Babylon,   1 6. 

Cassite  votive  objects,  discovery  of,  334-336  ; 
period,  tablets  of,  415. 

Castle  of  Nineveh,  (^al'at  Nunia,   11. 

Caviglia,  discovers  colossal  statue  of  Rameses 
II.,  665. 

Chaldea,  gods  of,  734;   location  of,  743. 

"Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,"  by  Smith, 

'99- 

ChampoUion,  solves  mystery  of  hieroglyphics, 
629  ;  at  head  of  French  expedition,  630  ; 
his  archaeological  works,  631. 

Chebar,  great  canal  of,  412. 

Chefien,  pviamid  of,  653. 

Chemosh,  Moabite  god,  mentioned  on  Moab- 
ite  stone,  612. 

Cheops,  pyramid  of,  653. 

Chesney,  Euphrates  and  Tigris  expedition  of, 
32;  map  series,  35,  61-62;  in  Euphrates 
expedition,  58-63. 

Chrestomathy,  South  Arabian,  732. 

Christ,  time  of,  582  ;  sepulchre  of,  583  ; 
place  of  Last  Supper,   584. 

Christendom,  first  centuries  of,  582. 

Christian  Church,  Palestine  a  possession  of, 
582. 

Christianitv,  the  state  religion,  582;  chief 
sacred  place  of,  583. 

Christians,  pilgrimages  of,  582  ;  regard  for  holy 
places,  582  ;  traditions  of,  <;82. 

Church  of  Holy  Sepulchre,  Tobler's  descrip- 
tion of,  589  ;  site  of  Basilica  of  Resurrec- 
tion,  598  ;   on  map  of  Palestine,  619. 

Cilicia,  kings  of,  780-781,  791. 

Clark,  C.  H.,  chairman  of  committee  on  pub- 
lication, 346-347,  426. 

Clark,  E.  W.,  equips  permanent  Babylonian 
expedition,  294,  426  ;  treasurer  of  Baby- 
lonian corporation,  299. 

Cockburn,  Lieut.,  drowning  of,  60. 

Coleman  d'Emey,  assistance  of,  344. 

Collingwood,  explorations,  66-69. 

Conder,  Captain,  his  exploring  expedition  in 
Palestine,  592  ;   second  expedition,   594. 

Conduit  of  Siloam,  inscription  of,  613-615. 

Constantine,  Christianity  under,  582  ;  letter 
to  Makarius,  583  ;  as  builder  of  Church 
of  the  Sepulchre,  619. 


798 


GENERAL  IXDEX. 


Constantinople,  Museum  of,  756. 

Cooper,  V. ,  artist,  I  1 4. 

Coptic  Apocalypse  of  Elias,  627. 

Court  of  Columns,  447. 

Coxe,  Kckley,  Jr.,  aids  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania in  publication  of  third  volume  ot 
Babylonian  discoveries,  347. 

Crittenden,  Charles  J.,  his  discovery  of  Ara- 
bic inscriptions,  703-704. 

Crocodilopolis,  Greek  name  of  the  Fayum, 
665,  671. 

Cuneiform  writings,  importance  of,  21  ;  in- 
scriptions of  Western  Asia,  189;  languages, 
American  advance  in  study  of,  289. 

Cypriotic  syllabary,  775. 

Dagon,  lands  of,  616. 

Dahshur,    pyramids     of,    and    discoveries    in, 

657-658,  661. 
Damitjilishu,  inscription,  418. 
Daniel,  Tower  of,   14. 
D'Anville,  locates  Nineveh,  12. 
Daphns  not  identified  with  Tell  Defne,  648. 
Daressy  completes  discovery  of  Medinet   Habu 

Temple,  683. 
Darius,  inscription  of,  71. 
Databari,  410. 
David,  Palace  and  City  of,  location  of,  600, 

601  ;   Tower  of,  603. 
Dead  Sea,  location  of,  596,  619. 
Defters,  A.,  his  excursion  to  Yemen,  721. 
Dehna,  desert  of,  709. 
Delitzsch,  Friedrich,  establishes   Assyriological 

school,  280  ;   interpretaiions  of,   737. 
De  Longperian  on  proper  names,   187. 
Delta  of  Nile,  excavations  in,  641,  646. 
Deluge,  account  of,  discovered,  191. 
De  Morgan,  discoveries  of,  657-661. 
Dendera  (  Gr.  Tentvra),  its  temples  and  sanc- 
tuaries discovered,  638  ;  necropolis  of,  641. 
Der,  common  bricks  of,  277. 
Der      el-Bahri,     terrace     temple     of,     638  ; 

cleansed  of  its  rubbish,  641,  683. 
Derenbourg,  Hartw.,  works  of,  732. 
De  Sarzec,  return  of,  to  Tello,  224  ;    French 

honors  to,  226  ;   excavations  of  Mound  B, 

Tello,   239-250  ;    rewards   of,   247-249  ; 

last  two  campaigns  of,  at  Tello,  256-257  ; 

death  of,  259  ;  influence  of  his  discoveries, 

281. 
De  Saulcy,  on  Assyrian  inscriptions,  1S7. 
Deshesha,  necropolis  of,  641. 
Dhaw,  Arabian  god,   735. 
Dhu-Samwa,  Arabian  god,  735. 
Diban,  anciently  Dibon,  which  see. 
Dibon  (  Daibon  ),  royal  city  of  Moab,  61 1. 
Dilhim,  clav  tablets  of,  276. 
Dilmum,  Semitic  for  Nituk,  738. 
Dioscuri,  temple  of,  at  Naukratis,  652. 
Diospolis,  see  Lydda. 


Diwaniye,  description  of,  302. 

"Dome  of  the  Rock,"  called  Mosque  of 
'Omar,  598. 

Dor,  conquest  ot,  616. 

Doughty,  Charles  M.,  Arabian  traveller,  698  ; 
his  discoveries,  712-713,  737. 

Drah,  AbuM-Nagga,  excavations  at,  643  ;  ran- 
sacked by  treasure-seekers,  685. 

Dungi,  King,  repairs  temple,   174. 

Duperron-Antequil,  23. 

Dur-Kurigalzu,   39. 

Dur-Sharruken,  Sargon's  Castle,  85  ;  royal 
palace,  282. 

Eannatum,  King,  223  5   ruler,  241. 

Eastern  enterprises  cooperate  with  Univ.  of 
Pa.  expedition,  294. 

East  India  Company,  interest  of,  in  explora- 
tion, 65-66. 

Eber,  Hebrew  ancestor,  742. 

Echenaten,  assumed  as  name  by  Amenophis 
IV.,  674. 

Edfu,  discovery  of  temple  of  Sun-god  Horus 
at,  639. 

Edom,  kinship  of,  with  Hebrews,  742. 

Edrei,  city  of  Og,  596. 

Egypt,  start  of  the  Smith-Robinson  travels, 
587  ;  archeology  of,  compared  with  that 
of  Palestine,  607,  608  ;  prominence  of, 
in  archajology,  625  5  treasures  of  Nile 
valley,  625  ;  gains  to  learning  bv  Egyptian 
discoveries,  626  ;  Greek  art  in  Egypt,  626  5 
additions  to  classical  philology,  626  ;  gains 
to  Christian  literature,  626-627  5  Gnostic 
works  in  Coptic,  626  ;  Sayings  of  our  Lord, 
627  ;  Acts  of  St.  Paul,  627  ;  gains  to 
Oriental  and  Graeco-Roman  history,  627  5 
new  light  on  Old  Testament,  627  ;  history 
of  the  excavations,  62S-643  ;  Napoleon's 
expedition  to,  628  ;  French  collections  of 
antiquities,  628  ;  English  collections,  629  ; 
Rosetta  stone,  discovery  ot,  629  ;  expedi- 
tion of  Charles  X.,  630;  German  expedi- 
tions to,  631-632  ;  Exploration  Fund,  work 
of,  640-641  ;  Research  Account,  642  ;  re 
suits  of  Egyptian  explorations,  643—690. 

Eileithvaspolis,  site  ot,  642. 

Ekur,  Temple  of  B:'1,  470-478,  551. 

El,  Arabian  god,  735. 

El-'Amarna,  tombs  of,  633  ;  description  of, 
674  ;   period  of,  674. 

Elamite,  invasion,  380  ;   dynasty,   380. 

El-Birs,  ruin  of,  43. 

Eldred,  English  merchant  (  1583),  obstrvations 
of,   14  ;  on  Tower  of  Babel,  15. 

Elealeh,  location  of,  594. 

El-Hibba,  German  excavations  at,  280; 
mounds  of,  described,  282-283  5  discoveries 
at,  283-288  ;   cemetery  of,  536. 

Elias,  Coptic  Apocalypse  of,  627. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


799 


El-Kab,  Quibell's  discoveries  at,  642,  681. 

El-Lahun,  pyramids  ot,  located,  641. 

EUasor  =  Larsani,  i  54. 

El-Mada'in,  Persian  king,  3S. 

El-Ohemir,  pyramid  mound,  41  ;  mound  ot, 
49  ;   mounds  of",  169. 

El-'Ola,  inscriptions  of,  727-728. 

El-gr.nf,  ruins  of,  276. 

Emmaus,  Hebrew  name  of  Roman  Xikopolis, 
586. 

Enannaium,  ruler,  241. 

England's  position  in  Oriental  exploration,  25. 

En-lil  or  Bel,  464. 

En-rogel,  the  "  Fount  of  the  Fuller,"  location 
of,  599. 

Entemena,  ruler,  241. 

En-zag,  Arabic  god  =  Nebo,  739. 

Ephesus,  road  from,  750. 

Erbil,  4  5   description  of,   32  ;   =  Arbela,  32. 

Erbkam,  architect,  photographs,  pyramids,  and 
tombs  of  Memphis,  632-633. 

Erech  or  Uruk,   146  ;   remains  ot,   151. 

Ero,  see  HeroiJnpolis. 

Esarhaddon,  King,  cuneiform  inscriptions  ot, 
1055  palace  of,  112;  bricks  of,  332; 
reign  of,  740  5   royal  steles  of,  611. 

Eshmunazar,  King,  discovery  of  sarcophagus 
of,  at  Salda,  616. 

Eski-Mosul,  ruin  of,  11. 

Etemena,  patesi  of  Lagash,  333. 

Ethiopia  =  Kush,  742. 

Ethiopian  monuments  on  Upper  Nile,  633. 

Euphrates,  4  ;  visit  of  Benjamin  to,  7  5  ex- 
pedition, objects  of,  575  valley,  highway 
of,  57  ;  expedition,  members  of,  58  ;  ex- 
pedition, described,  58-61  5  expedition,  re- 
sults of,  61-63  i  steamer,  59. 

Euphrates  of  Nippur  =  Shatt-en-Nil,  412. 

E-ur-imin-an-ki,  "  Temple  ot  the  Seven  Di- 
rections ot  Heaven  and  Earth,"   184. 

Euting,  Julius,  discoveries  of,  in  Arabia,  717- 
-18,  730. 

Exploration  Fund,  Palestine,  518  ;  organiza- 
tion of;  first  expedition,  591  ;  second  ex- 
ploration, 622  ;  special  work  of,  in  Jeru- 
salem, 596-606. 

Exploration  Fund,  Egypt,  work  of,  640—641. 

Ezida,  temple  of  Nero,  130;   temple  of,  264. 

F.ALLUjA,  starting-point,  14. 

Fara,  exploration  of,  538. 

Faucher,  Leon,  plan  of  expedition,  163. 

Fayum  of  Memphis,  visited,  633,  641  ;  de- 
scription of,  665  ;   discoveries  in,  665-666. 

Fergusson,  archsological  views  of,  598. 

Field,  Perez  H.,  architect  and  surveyor  of 
Babylonian  expedition,  300. 

First  .Assyrian  palace,  1 1 1 . 

Flandin,  E.,  dispatched  by  France  to  assist 
Botta,  77. 


Fount  of  the  Fuller,  see  En-rogel. 
Fourth  Campaign,  425  ;   points  ot,  429. 
Fraktin,  inscriptions  ot,  757. 
Franco-Tuscan  expedition  to  Egypt,  results  of, 

630. 
Frankincense  Terraces  of  Arabia,  694. 
Fraser,   G.  Baillie,  tour  of,'  54  ;   enters  Irlq, 

66. 
Frederick,  Edward,  travels  of,  50. 
French    collections     of    Egyptian    antiquities, 

628;   archaeological  works,  63:. 
French  excavations  at  Tello,  216. 
French  expedition  to  Assyria,  163. 
Fresnel  directs  French  expedition,  163. 

Cadara,  in  line  of  search,   594. 

Galilee,  researches  in,  587. 

Gardner,  E.,   works    with    Egypt    Exploration 

Fund,  641. 
Gath,  supposably  modern   Tell   es-Siti,  which 

see,  609. 
Gautier,  F.  G.,  discoveries  of,  642,  661. 
Gaza,  street  of,  619. 

Gebel  Musa,  not  the  Sinai  of  the  Bible,  634. 
Gebel  Silsile,  examined  by  De  Morgan,  678. 
Gennat,  gate  of,  at  Jerusalem,  604. 
German  excavations  at  Surghul   and   El-Hibta 

under  Moritz  and  Koldewev,  280. 
German    Palestine    Society,    work   of,    594- 

595  ;   special  work  of,  in  Jerusalem,  596- 

606  ;   forthcoming  maps  of,  619  ;   explora- 
tions, 631,  643. 
Gesem,  discovery  of  ruins  of,  650. 
Gesenius,  essays  of,  731-732. 
Giaur-Kalesi,  inscriptions  of,  757. 
Gihon,  Arabian  valley,  742. 
Gihon,  spring  near  Jerusalem,  6c2. 
Gilead,  land  of,  596. 
Gilgamesh,  national  hero,  191. 
Gize,  pyramids  of,  631,  654. 
Glaser,  Eduard,  travels  and  work  of,  in  Arabia, 

708,  717,  720-722,  730,  732,   737. 
Gnostic  works  in  Coptic,  626. 
Gobat,  Bishop,  school  of,  603. 
Golan,  location  of,  596. 
Golden  Gate  of  Jerusalem,  604. 
Golgotha,  location  of,  604,  605. 
Goliath,    Castle    of,  formerly   the    Psephinus, 

606. 
Gomorrah,  overthrow  of,  4. 
Goshen,  new  light  on,  648  ;   land  of,  650. 
Grebaut,  G.  M.  E.,  work  of,  in  Egypt,  639  ; 

his  finds  at  Der  el-Bahri,  688. 
Greek  art  in  Egypt,  626,  647. 
Griffith,  F.  L. ,  works  with  Egypt  Exploration 

Fund,  641. 
Grotefend,   Georg   Friederich,    papers  of,   23- 

24  ;  system  of  Oriental  languages,  24  ;  on 

cuneiform  inscriptions,  187. 
Guarmani,  his  Arabian  travels,  708. 


800 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Gubi,  trees  of,  738. 

Gudea,  priest-king  of  Lagash,  tablet  of,  222  ; 

statue    of,    237  5     door    sockets    ot,    279  5 

sculptures  of,  385. 
Gunduk,  rock  sculptures  ot,   I  1  6. 
Gungunu,  King,  381-382. 
Gurgum,  kings  ot,  779. 
Gurob,  period  ot,  674. 
Giirun,  inscriptions  ot,  757. 
Guthe,    his    discovery   of  walls  of  Jerusalem, 

603  ;   the  Siloam  inscription,  613. 
Gutschmid,  Alf-ed  von,  attack  of,  on  Assyrian 

deciphering,  280. 

Hadad,  Syrian  moon-god,  735-736- 

Hadramot,  South  Arabian  region,  694,  700  ; 
inscriptions  of,  729. 

Hagir,  Arabian  god,  735. 

Haifa,  surveys  at,   595. 

Hajji  'AbduUa  Bey,  33. 

Haiji  Tarfa,  supreme  shaikh,  314' 

Halevy,  Joseph,  Arabian  travels  and  works  of, 
706,  709,  730,  732  5  Hittite  researches  of, 
771. 

Halys,  river,  Asia  Minor,  756-757. 

Hamath,  inscriptions  of,  756-75-' 5  age  of, 
761,  766-767,   777-778,  791. 

Hamdani,  works  of,  699,  736'. 

Hamdy  Bey,  influence  of,  205  ;  protection 
of,   319  ;   discoveries  of^  in  Sidon,  618. 

Hamid  el-EirjCd,  shaikh,  protection  of,  322. 

Hammurabi,  King,  49;  building  operations 
of,  276  ;   tablets  of,   311. 

HarJm,  location  of,  598. 

Harim,  inscriptions  of,  735. 

Harper,  Dr.  R.  F. ,  Assyriologist  of  Babylonian 
expedition,   3C0. 

Harris,  Walter  B.,  describe:  Arabian  Alpine 
region,  722. 

Harrison,  Dr.  C.  C,  provost'  of  Univ.  of 
Pa.,    293. 

Hathor  Set,  tomb  of,  659. 

Hatshepsowet,  Queen,  discovery  of  palace  of, 
643. 

Hauran,  mountains  of,   595. 

Havvara,  pyramid  of,  located,  641,  671. 

Haworth,  Jesse,  aids  exploration,  641. 

Haynes,  J.'  H.,  accompanies  Wolfe  expedition 
to  Babylonia,  290  ;   photographer  and  man- 
ager of  Bab\ Ionian  expedition,  300  ;   leaves 
on  third   campaign   of  Philadelphia   expedi- 
tion, 348-349  ;   begins  excavations  at  Shatt 
en-Nil,  350;   results,  350  , 
discoveries  of,  353-510. 
Hebrew,  how  related  to  Arab,  742. 
Hebrew  bowls,  discovery  of,  326. 
Hebron,  in  line  of  research,  587. 
Heeren,  seconds  Grotefend's  discoveries;  24. 
Helena,   Empress,    and  the    Holy   Sepulchre, 
583- 


Hellenium,  discovery  of,  at  Naukratis,  652  ; 

site  of  Greek  colonies  in  Egypt,  652. 
Hera,  temple  of,  at  Naukratis,  652. 
Herod,    his    method   of  construction    in  Jeru- 
salem, 601  ;   palace  of,  604. 
Herodotus,  his  Temple  of  Belus,   195     as  au- 
thority, 646-647,  669;   quoted,  755. 
Herondas,  "  Mimiambi  "  of,  626. 
Heroonpolis,  cr  Ero,  meeting-place   of  Joseph 

and  his  father,  650. 
Heshbon,  location  of,  594. 
Hetep-Usertesen    (Arabic  Kahum),  residence 

of  King  Usertesen  II.,  659. 
Heuzey,  influence  of,  223. 
Hezekiah,  wall   of,  604;   mention   of,    607; 

conduit  of,  613,  614. 
Hiddekel,  river  of  Eden,  743. 
Hierakonpolis,  ruins  of,  642,  681. 
Hillah,  buildings  of,  20  ;   groves  of,  30. 
Hilmi  Pasha,  discoveries  of,  210. 
Hilprecht,  Professor  H.  V.,  meets  De  Sarzec, 
258  ;   official   representative   of  Assyriology 
in  University  of  Pennsylvania,  297  ;  recom- 
mendations of,  as  to  site  of  excavations,  297- 
299  ;   secretary  of  Babylonian   corporation, 
299  5  assigned  as  University  of  Pennsylvania 
Assyriologist,  301  ;  work  of,  on  cuneiform 
inscriptions     of    Nahr-el-Kelb     and     Wadi 
Berisa,     301  5   observations    of,  at    Nuffar, 
306-308  ;    discoveries    of,  at   Mound   IV, 
Nutfar,    308-311  ;   prepares    list   of  Baby- 
lonian kings,  346  5   secretary  and   editor-in- 
chief  of  committee   on   publication,  347  ; 
edits   "  Cuneiform  Texts,  Series  A,  Baby- 
lonian  Expedition,"  347  ;  scientific   direc- 
tor, 427. 
Hincks,    Edward,    collections   of,    87  ;   labors 

of,  188. 
Hine,  Dr.,  visit  to  El-Ohtmir,  41. 
Hinnom,  valley  of,  599. 
Hippicus,  place  of,  603. 
Hirsch,  Leo,  visits  Shibam,  724. 
Hittite  districts  visited,  301. 
Hittites,    location    of,  620  ;     lands   of,    758  ; 
writing  of,  758  ;   inhabitants  of  Khate  (see 
Khittim),  758-759;   derivation   of  name, 
759  ;   character  of  inscriptions,  760-761  ; 
date  of  inscriptions,  761  ;  possible  empire  of, 
769  ;   difficulty  of  deciphering  inscriptions, 
769  ;    decipherment   of  inscriptions,    773  ; 
tongue  of,  775  ;  relationship  with  Armeni- 
ans, 785,  788  ;   Bible  mention  of,  792. 
Hittite  Zeus,  god  of  the  sky,  758. 
Hittitology,  Wright's  work  in,  756. 
Holv  Land,  see  Palestine. 
Hommel,    impressions    of,    460  5    works    of, 

73--  ,      r    ^ 

Hor,  King,  discovery  of  tomb  ot,  659. 
Horeb,  Mount,  identified  as  the  probable  Sinai, 

634. 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


801 


Horus,  sun-god  of  Egvpt,  639;  his  revenge,  I 
656. 

Hou,  necropolis  of,  work  in,  641. 

House  of  the  Mountain,  472. 

Huber,  Charles,  discoveries  of,  in  Arabia,  7 1 7- 
718. 

Hule,  Lake  of,  595. 

Humboldt,  Alexander  von,  deciphers  hierogly- 
phics, 63. 

Hurgronje,  C.  Snouk,  his  work  on  Mecca, 
719-720. 

Hyslop,  Dr.,  assists  Jones,  66. 

Ibn  Hauqal,  reference  of,  to  Babel,  13. 

Iflatunbunar,  inscriptions  of,  757. 

Igzin,  inscriptions  of,  757,  785. 

Ikhilu,  place  of,  741. 

II,  Arabian  god,  736. 

Ilpiati,  place  of,  741. 

Imgur-Marduk,  remains,  484  ;  walls  of,  550. 

Inscriptions,  Hittite,  decipherment  of,  4,  20— 

41  ;   principles  of,  773,  793. 
Iraq,  Rassam's  visit  to,  277. 
Isa,  canal  of,  37. 

Ishmael,  father  of  Arab  tribes,   742. 
Iskandarun,  inscriptions  of,  757. 
Isma'iliya,  canal  of,  648. 
Ives,  Edward,  contributions  of,  21. 
Ivriz,   inscriptions  of,    753,    755  ;  sculptures 

of,  762. 
Izdubar  or  Gilgamesh,   191. 

JABBOK,  boundary  stream,  596. 

Jacob,  brother  of  Edom,  742. 

Jaffa,  gate  of,  603. 

jebur,  shaikh  of,  109. 

[ebus,  identical  with  City  of  David,  601. 

Jehoram,  King,  mention  of,  612. 

Jehoshaphat,  mention  of,  612. 

Tequier,  G.,  discoveries  ot,  642,  661. 

Jerabis  ( Carchemish),  visited,  301  ;  inscrip- 
tions of,  757  ;  site  of,  763  ;  date  of  inscrip- 
tions, 763-764. 

Jerash,  ruins  of,  90. 

jeremias,  Frledrich,  writings  of,  733. 

Jeroboam  II.,  mention  of,  607. 

Jerusalem,  the  ideal  city,  582  ;  old  and  new- 
city,  583  ;  excavations  in,  584  ;  the  Smith- 
Robinson  researches,  588;  the  Siloam  con- 
duit, 588  ;  centre  of  Palestinian  research, 
596  ;  special  researches  in,  596-606  ;  dirfi- 
culties  met  with,  597  ;  topographical  de- 
scription of,  598-606  ;  walls  of,  600-606  ; 
archaeological  results  at,  607-622  ;  arch- 
aeological school  at,  622. 

Jewish  prisoners,  410. 

Jezire,  plain  of,  55. 

Jimjime  ^Jumjuma,  30. 

Job,  historic  background  of,  747  j  Book  of, 
described,   747-748. 


Jof,  land  of,  741. 

Jolin,  map  of,  595. 

Jonah,  traditional  burial-place  of,   10. 

Jones,  James  Felix,  survey  of,  30  n.  ;  explora- 
tions ot,  63-66. 

Joppa,  conquest  of,  616. 

Jordan,  divisional  stream,  594,  596  ;  valley 
of,  619. 

Josephus  as  authority,   599,  601,  602. 

Jethro,  priest  of  Midian,  749. 

Judea,  researches  in,  587-588;  Tobler's  dis- 
coveries in,  589-590. 

Jumjuma,  or  "skull,"   30. 

Kadashman-Turgu,      stage-tower    of,     3  77  j 

inscriptions  of,  41  7. 
Kaisariye,  inscriptions  of,  757,  791. 
Karabel,  Pass  of,  753  ;   inscriptions  of,  757. 
Karkemish,  site  of,  757,  763  ;   date,  778. 
Karnak,  excavations  at,  638  ;  temple  of,  670, 

682. 
Kemose,  tomb  of,  684. 
Kenath,  location  of,  596. 
Kennard,  Martyn,  aids  exploration,  630,  641. 
Keppel,  Captain,  narrative  of,  51. 
Kerak,  site  of,  619. 
Khabiri,  people  of,  620. 

Khabur  =  Biblical  Habor,  60  ;  banks  of,  1 1 6. 
Khadd  Deqel^Hiddekel. 
Khakhum,  mountains  of,  738. 
Khammurabi  =  Biblical  Amraphel,  739. 
Khamuni,  kingdom  of,  790. 
Khartum,  visited  by  Prussian  expedition,  634. 
Khate,  land  of,  see  Khittim,  758-759  ;  kings 

of,  762  ;   time  of  kings,  762,    768,    776, 

786. 
Khazu  =  Khazo  of  O.  T.,  741. 
Khittim,    inhabitants    of    Khate,    or   Hittites, 

758-759- 

Khol,  messenger  of  gods,  748. 

Khorsabad,  4;  site  of,  76;  Botta's  discover- 
ies at,  76  ;   importance  of  discoveries  at,  84. 

Kidron,  valley  of,  598,  600. 

Kiepert,  Henry,  excavations  of,  64,  68  ;  the 
cartographer,  699. 

Ki-mash,  land  of,  738-739;  identical  with 
Kosh  cr  Kush,  742. 

Kinneir,  Macdonald,  observations  of,  50. 

Kirtshoghlu,  inscriptions  of,  757. 

Kish,  city  of,  49. 

Kitchener,  Lieutenant  (Lord),  with  Conder  in 
Palestine,  592. 

Klein,  Rev.  F. ,  his  discovery  of  Moabite 
stone  at  Diban,  611. 

Koldewev,  Dr.  Robert,  researches  of,  166, 
282  ;  excavations  by,  280  ;  German  ex- 
cavations at,  280  ;  work  and  conclusions 
of,  283-288  ;   discoveries  of,  457. 

Kolitolu,  inscription  of,  757,  785. 

Kom  el-Ahmar,  ruins  near,  642. 


802 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


K6m  Ga'if,  mound  of,  =  ancient  Naukratis, 

651. 
Kommagene,  empire  ot,  766,  779-780,  784. 
Kom    Ombo    (Ombos),  beautiful   temple   of, 

640-641. 
Kud(  t)  el-'Amara,  location  of,  64. 
Kufic  coins,  discovery  of,  316. 
Kurigalzu,  Cassite  ruler,  312  ;  bricks  of,  331; 

inscriptions,  41  7. 
Kush,  how  identified  with  Ethiopia  and  Arabia, 

742. 
Kyaxares,  king  of  Media,  791. 
Kyzylirmak=  Halys,  756. 

Labyrinth  of  Egypt,  located,  633,  641,  666  ; 
when  built,  669. 

Lachish,  site  of,  607  ;   siege  of,  608. 

Lagash,  builders  and  rulers,  247. 

Lakhamun,  or  Zarnapit,  48,  49. 

Landberg,  Count,  visits  Raven  Castle,  725- 
726. 

Langer,  Siegfried,  Arabian  travels  of,  716- 
717. 

Larsam  or  Ellasar,  154—155. 

Layard,  Sir  Austen  Henry,  excavations  of,  34  ; 
discoveries  of,  65  ;  enters  Iraq,  66  ;  re- 
searches of,  in  Assyria,  88-129  ;  discoveries 
of,  at  Nimrud,  95-129  ;  meets  Rawlinson, 
975  publications  of,  112  ;  his  second  ex- 
pedition, 114;  again  at  Qovunjuk  and 
Nimrud,  116;  at  Tell-Mohammed,  158; 
employed  by  British  Museum,  202-203. 

Lebanon,  range  of,  587,  596. 

Leipzig  school  of  Assyriologists,  280. 

Lememses,  king  of  Abydos,  680. 

Lepsius,  Karl  Richard,  heads  German  expedi- 
tion to  Egypt,  632  ;  opens  up  Ethiopian 
civilization,  633  ;  his  works,  634. 

Levites,  institution  of,  749-750. 

Libil-khegal,  canal,  32. 

Library  of  Nineveh  described,   121-123. 

Lisht,  pyramids  of,  explored,  642. 

Lockett,  Captain,  visit  to  El-Ohlmir,  41. 

Loewenstern,  on  Assyrian  language,  187. 

Loftus,  William  Kennett,  enters  Iraq,  66  ;  re- 
searches of,  136-138;  further  researches 
of,  139-144- 

Loret,  Victor,  continues  Egyptian  explora- 
tions, 639. 

Lugalkigubnidudu,  ruler  of  Erech,  333. 

Lugalzaggisi,  king  of  Erech,  312,  333,  383- 
384. 

Luxor,  excavations  at,  640  ;  temple  of,  6"0, 
682-683. 

Lvdda,  Hebrew  name  of  Roman  Diospolis, 
'586. 

Lynch,  R.  B.,  drowning  of,  60;  explorations 
of,  66-69. 

Lyons,  Captain,  work  of,  at  Philae,  642. 


Macalister,  Stewart,  his  researches  in  Pales- 
tine, 609. 

Macedonian  Empire,  554. 

Madaba,  mosaic  of,  representing  map  of  Syria, 
Palestine,  and  Egypt,  618-619. 

Ma'dan,  tribes  of,  6. 

Magan,  East  Arabic,  730,  736. 

Makarius,  his  letter  from  Constantine,   583. 

Malatya,  inscription  of,  779. 

Malik,  attendant  of  Shamash,  269. 

Maltzan,  Heinrich  von,  his  Arabian  travels, 
710-71 1. 

Mandan  bo\Cls,  discovery  of,  326. 

Manetho,  as  an  authority,  669. 

Manishtusu,  king  of  Kish,  276,   333. 

Manzoni,  Renzo,  Arabian  works  of,  714. 

Map,  mosaic,  of  Egypt,  Syria,  and  Palestine, 
619-620. 

Mar'ash,  Hittite  district,  visited,  301  ;  in- 
scriptions of,  756—757;  date  of,  765,  767— 
780. 

Marashu  Sons,  firm  of,  502. 

Marco  Polo,  travels  of,   13. 

Mareshah,  site  of,  611. 

Maria,  Vincenzo,  observations  of,   17. 

Marib,  Saba's  capital,  697  ;  explorations  in, 
704-705. 

Mariette,  Augustus,  opens  a  new  period  of 
Egyptian  exploration,  634  ;  his  discovery 
of  the  Serapeum,  634  ;  discovery  of 
sphinxes,  635-636;  his  further  explora- 
tions, 637,  639,  644. 

Mar  Matti  monastery,  33. 

Mary,  mother  of  God,  582  ;  place  of  demise, 
583  ;   St.  Mary's  Well,  site  of,  602. 

Mash,  land  of,  741. 

Maspero,  opens  pyramids  of  Saqqira,  654, 
662. 

Maudslay,  his  find  at  Jerusalem,  603. 

Mecca,  Islam's  centre,  719. 

Medeba,  location  of,  594  ;   land  of,  612. 

Median  Wall  of  Xenophon,  64. 

Medinet  Habu,  temple  of,  638,  683. 

Medum,  pyramid  of,  explored  by  Petrie,  641  ; 
inscriptions  in,  663. 

Melidia,  see  Malatya,  779. 

Melitene,  by  whom   held,  766  ;   see  Malatya, 

779- 
Melukh,  Central  Arabia,  737. 
Memnon,  colossi  of,  684. 
Memphis,  excavations  at,  631  ;   pyramids  ot, 

explored,     632;    tombs    discovered,    633; 

Serapeum  of,  634  ;   old  town  of,  665. 
Menant,  Hittite  researches  of,  771. 
Menephtah,  sanctuaries  of,  684. 
Menes,  King,  time  of,  665  ;  tomb  of,  6S0. 
Mereruka,  discovery  of  tomb  of,  657. 
Merit,  tomb  of,  659. 
Meroi,  remains  of,  634. 


G ENSEAL   INDEX. 


803 


Mesha,  king  of  Moab,  607  ;  his  inscription 
on  Moabite  stone,  61  1-6 13. 

Meyer,  Joseph  A.,  aids  Haynes,  351-353- 

Meyer,  Ludvvig,  member  of  Prussian  Mu- 
seums mission,  282. 

Meyer,  Prof.  Wilhelm,  discovers  Grotefend's 
papers,  24. 

Midian,  language  and  religion  of,   736,   742. 

Miebis,  king  oji  Abydos,  680. 

Mignan,  Capt.  Robert,  excursions  of,  51-54. 

Miles,  S.  B.,  Arabian  explorations,  712,  719. 

Millinger,  Charles,  his  Arabian  travels,  712. 

Minean  inscriptions,  royal,  728,  730,  749  ; 
throw  light  on  O.  T.  history,  748-750. 

Mineo-Sabean   writingb,  7305    mythology  of, 

733- 
Mitford,  E.  L.,  travels  of,  89-90. 
Moab,  kinship  of,  with  Hebrews,  742. 
Moabite  stone,  607  ;   disco\ery  of,  at  Dibin  ; 

description  of,  611-613. 
Moeris,    Lake    of,    located,    633,    641,    666, 

668,  669. 
Mohl,  Julius  von,  excavations  of,  72. 
Montefik,  shaikh  of,  55. 
Moon-god,  worship  of,  745-746. 
Mordtman,  works  of,  732. 
Morgan,  J.  de,  excavations  in  Susa,  380  ;  con- 
tinues Egyptian  explorations,  639. 
Moriah,  location  of,  599,  600. 
Moritz,  excavations  by,  280-282. 
Mosul,   region    and    location,    7-1 1  ;   Rich's 

visit  to,  33. 
Motab-Natiyin,  Midianite  god,  735-736. 
Mound  A,  Tello,  description  of,  226-229. 
Mound  B,  Tello,  revelations  of,  239-250. 
"Mound  of  Repentance,"  Tell  El-tuba,  11. 
Mud(t)allu,  st-e  Mut(d)allu. 
Mujtliba  =  Babil,  described,  28,  39,  48. 
Mukota,  treacherous  shaikh,  314;    death  of, 

320. 
Miiller,  D.    H.,   travels   ot,  in    Arabia,    726, 

732. 
Multiplication  table,  ancient,  531. 
Miinter,  Friedrich,  23. 
Munziger,  Werner,  his  Arabian  explorations, 

Muqayyar  =  Ur  of  Chaldees,  17  ;  situation  of 

ruins  of,  171-1  72. 
Murashu  Sons,  bankers  and  brokers,  409. 
Mut,  temple  of,  at  Karnak,  682. 
Mut(d)allu,  Hittite  king,  time  of,  766,  779- 

780,  784. 
Mykerinos,  pyramid  buildei ,  653. 

Nabate.'\n  inscriptions,  727. 

Nabonidos,    cylinders  of,   272  ;    narrative  of, 

273  ;   building  operations  of,  276. 
Nabopolassar's  rebellion,  310. 
Nabu-apal-iddina,  King,  272. 
Nabuna'id  =  Nabonidos,   174. 


Nahr  el-Kelb,  cuneiform  inscriptions  of,  301. 

Nahushi,   Botta's  foreman,  81. 

Naukratis,  discovery  of,  641  ;  excavations  in, 
651-652. 

Napata,  remains  of,  634. 

Napoleon's  expedition  to  Egypt,  628. 

Naqada,  discoveries  near,  641. 

Naram-Sin,  vase  of,  1 70  ;  onyx  vase  of, 
224  ;  tablets  of,  249  ;  foundation  stone  of, 
273  ;  brick  stamp  of,  3125  institutions 
of,  378-388;  period  of,  390;  pavement 
°f>  393  5  ^3"  °^i  499  >  '^'"8  of  Akkad, 
739- 

Nasr,  Arabian  god,  735. 

Naville,  Ed.,  works  with  Egypt  Exploration 
Fund,  641  ;   discoveries  at  Bast,  646. 

Nazareth,  in  line  ot  research,  587  ;  Tobler's 
work  on,  590. 

Nazi-Maruttash  inscriptions,  417. 

Neapolis  (Nablus),  sec  Shechem. 

Nebhotep,  princess,  discovery  of  tomb  of, 
659;   description  of  tomb,  660. 

Nebi  Yijnus,  mound  of,  4,  1 1  ;  Rassam's  ex- 
plorations at,  211— 212. 

Nebo,  god,  called  En-zag,  739. 

Nebo,  Mount,  location  of,  594  5  town  of, 
taken  by  King  Mesha,  612. 

Nebuchadrezzar,  palace  of,  30  ;  (I.)  charter 
of,  276  ;  (II.  )  building  operations  of,  276  ; 
his  siege  of  Lachish,  608  ;  siege  of  Azekah, 
609  5  dynasty  of,  743. 

Nechterehbet,  see  Nektanebts. 

Nehemiah,  wall  ot,  around  Jerusalem,  602. 

Nejd,  Arabian  highlands,  694. 

Nektanebt's  I.,  king  of  22d  dynasty,  646. 

Newberry,  his  work  near  Thebes,  643. 

Niebuhr,  Carsten,  locates  and  describes  Nin- 
eveh, II  ;  examines  Hilla  mounds,  18; 
svstem  of  Persepolis  inscriptions,  24  ;  map 
of,   35  ;   began  Arabian  explorations,   700. 

Nikopolis,  see  Emmaus. 

Nile,  Upper,  monuments  on,  633  ;  explora- 
tions in  Delta  of,  641. 

Nimfi,  in  Karabel  Pass,  755. 

Nimit-Marduk,  remains,  485  5  walls  of,  556. 

Nimrod,  builder  of  Nineveh,  9  ;  Birs,  tower  of 
(Nimrud),  17;  Gilgamesh  or  Izdubar, 
191  ;   epic  of,   738  ;   son  of  Arabia,  742. 

Nimrud,  4;  or  ruins  of  Birs,  13  ;  Rich's 
visit  to,  33  ;  English  excavations  at,  88  ; 
ruins  of,  described,  93-94;  earliest  palace 
of,  99  ;  excavations  at,  by  Layard,  94- 
129  ;  bas-reliefs  of,  loi  ;  excavations  de- 
scribed, 123-125. 

Nineveh,  type  of  power,  3  ;  vanished,  6  ; 
capital  of  Assyria,  8  ;  located  by  RauwoW, 
8  ;  located  by  .Shirley,  8  ;  located  by 
Cartwright,  9  ;  located  by  Niebuhr,  1 1  ; 
located  by  Jewish  and  Christian  writers,  i  i  ; 
theories  as    to  location  of,    11;    Castle  ot 


804 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Qal'at  Nunia,  ii  ;  rediscovery  of,    j-zz 
located    by   D'Anville,    12;    plan  of,   65 
identified,    lil  ;     royal     library    of,     121 
royal  palace  of,  282  ;   inscriptions  found  in, 
755  ;  seal  inscriptions  of,  756. 

Nin-Girsu,  champion  of  B-1,  230. 

Nin-Sungir,  "Lord  of  Sungir,"  255. 

Ninus,  finisher  of  Nineveh,  9. 

Nippur,  religious  centre,  254  ;  business  quar- 
ter of,  413  ;  walls  of,  480  ;  curiosities  at, 
519;  architectural  details,  520  ;  library  of, 
described,  528  ;   topography  of,  540-548. 

Nisir,  mountain  of,   191. 

Nituk,  mountains  of,  738. 

Nolde,  Baron  Eduard,  work  of,  724. 

Noorian,  Daniel  Z.,  Armenian  interpreter, 
290,  300. 

Norris,  Edwin,  attempts  of,  at  an  Assyrian 
dictionary,   189. 

Nubia,  ruins  of,  examined,  630. 

Nuffar,  tombs  of,  155;  location  of,  160; 
American  excavations  at,  289  ;  (Calneh) 
explored  by  Univ.  of  Pa.  Babylonian  expe- 
dition, 294;  scene  of,  described,  304  ; 
opening  of  first  trenches  at,  by  Philadelphia 
expedition,  308-309  ;  Hilprecht's  observa- 
tions at,  306-308  ;  arrival  of  Philadelphia 
expedition  at,  303-305  ;  Tablet  Hill  of, 
3 1 1  ;  mounds,  disputed  ownership  of,  315; 
arrival  at,  432;  library  mound  of,  517; 
post-Babylonian  ruins  of,  556. 

Nunia  =  Nineveh,   1 1 . 

N-user-Re,  sanctuary  of,  643,  666. 

Og,  King,  strong  cities  of,  596. 

Olives,  Mount  of,  598. 

Olivier,  G.  A.,  contributions  of,  21. 

'Oni.in,  land  and  mountains  of,  694,  719. 

'Omar,  Mosque  of,  on  site  of  Solomon's  Tem- 
ple, 598. 

Ombos,  see  Kom  Ombo. 

'Omran  (= 'Amran)  ibn 'Ali,  dome  of,  30, 
40  ;  discoveries,  166;  votive  objects  at,  336. 

Omri,  King,  mention  of,  on  Moabite  stone, 
612. 

Onias,  high  priest,  who  built  Jewish  temple 
at  Shibin  el-(^anatir,  651. 

Onnos,  pyramid,  opening  of,  657. 

Ophel,  hill  of,  603. 

Opis,  site  of,  65. 

Oppert,  Jules,  Assyriologist,  163;  discoveries 
at  Qasr,  165  ;  discoveries  at  Tell  'Omran 
ibn  'Ali,  166  ;  discussions  of,   188. 

Ordasu,  inscriptions  from,  757  ;   date  of,  766. 

Osiander,  interpretations  of,  732-733. 

Osiris,  Sokaris,  sanctuary  of,  636  ;  fate  of, 
656. 

Otter,  Jean,  travels  and  studies  of,  10  ;  exam- 
ines HlUa  mounds,  18  j  diseovers  inscrip- 
tions, 755. 


Palanga,  inscriptions  of,  247. 

Palestine,  visit  of  Benjamin  to,  7  j  the  "  Holy 
Land,"  581  ;  Exploration  Fund,  581  ;  be- 
ginning of  research  in,  581  5  pilgrimages  to, 
582  5  Christian  reverence  for,  582  ;  histor- 
ical precedents  in,  583-584;  topography  of, 
Robinson's  researches  in,  585;  Smith's 
travels  in,  586-587  ;  Tobler's  journeys  in, 
588-590;  geographical  survey  of,  591- 
596  5  Wilson's  and  Co.ider's  expeditions, 
591-592  ;  work  of  German  society,  594— 
595  ;  Jerusalem  researches,  595-596  ; 
archaeology  of,  compared  with  Egypt  and 
Babylon,  607-608. 

Palgrave,  Giffbrd,  opens  portals  of  Central 
Arabia,  707-708. 

Parthian  building,  ruins  of,  313  ;  coins,  dis- 
covery of,  326  ;  burials,  422  ;  remains, 
556-568. 

Pashe,  dynasty  ot,  548. 

Paul,  St.,  quoted,  5825  Acts  of,  discovered  in 
Egypt,  627. 

Pehlevi  inscriptions,  23. 

Peiser,  Hittite  researches  of,  771. 

Pellv,  Colonel,  his  Arabian  travels  and  dis- 
coveries, 709. 

Pepi,  King,  incantations  ot,  655. 

Pepper,  Dr.  William,  provost  of  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  293;  president  of  Babylo- 
nian corporation,  299  ;   president,  426. 

Perring,  F.  E.,  his  explorations  at  Memphis, 
631  ;   theory  of  pyramids,  653. 

Persepolis,  ruins  of,  22. 

Persian  inscriptions,  21  ;   period,  548. 

Peters,  Dr. ,  interest  of,  in  Assyriology,  292- 
293  5  director  ot  Babylonian  corporation, 
300  5  methods  of,  307  ;  resumes  second 
campaign  of  Philadelphia  expedition,  319  ; 
position  of,  in  second  campaign,  321  ;  his 
cunning  with  the  Afej  tribe,  323-325  ; 
explorations  of,  in  other  mounds  of  Nuffar, 
337-344;  draws  plan  of  work  of  third 
Philadelphia  expedition,  346. 

Pethahiah,  Rabbi,  hisvisitto  Mesopotamia,  7. 

Petra,  ruins  of,  90. 

Petrie,  W.  M.  F.,  works  with  Egypt  Explo- 
ration Fund,  641  ;  founds  "  Egyptian  Re- 
search Account,"  641  ;  his  work  at  Tanis, 
645  ;  at  Saqqara,  662  ;  in  Fayum,  671  ; 
his  excavations  at  Tell  el-Hesy,  607,  630. 

Peutingerian  tables,  594,  619. 

Phasael,  tower  of,  at  Jerusalem,  604. 

Phenicia,  discoveries  in,  sarcophagi  of  Esh- 
munazar  and  Alexander,  615-618. 

Philadelphia,  interest  of,  in   archaeology,  294. 

Philadelphia    expedition,   work    of  the    first, 

295  ;   work    of   the    second,    295  ;    cam- 
paigns of,  295  ;   work   of  the  third,  295- 

296  ;  work  of  the  fourth,  296  ;  origin  and 
history  of,  297  ;  first  campaign  starts,  301  ; 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


805 


second  campaign  resumes  work,  319-345  ; 

ending    of    second     campaign,     344-345  ; 

third  campaign,   345  ;   third   campaign    de- 
scribed, 350-357. 
Phi):e,  explorations  at,  642. 
Phocea,  road  to,  755. 
Phrygia,  788. 
Pietro  della  Valle,  locates  Mosul  and  Nineveh, 

9  ;    his  first  cuneiform  inscriptions,  17;    at 

Muqayyar,   172. 
Pinches,  Thfophilus,  work  of,  icjo. 
Pithom    of  Bible,    discovery    of,    641,    648  ; 

temple  of,  650. 
Place,     Victor,    at    Khorsab.id,    66  •,    resumes 

Khoreabad  excavations,  81  ;  discoveries  of, 

at  Khorsabid,  81-84. 
Pliny,  statements  of,  736. 
Pognon,  assistance  of,  344. 
Polo,  Marco,  travels  of,  13. 
Porter,   Robert    Ker,  travels  and   observations 

of,  44-49. 
Post-Sargonic  ruins,  375. 
Praetorius,  works  of,   732. 
Pre-Sargonic  ruins,   390  ;    period,  495  ;  wells, 

535- 

Prince,  J.  D.,  secretary  to  Dr.   Peters,  300. 

Prussian  expedition  at  Memphis,  632  ;  revela- 
tion as  to  the  pyramids,  632—633  ;  discov- 
ery of  tombs,  633. 

Prussian  Museums,  Royal,  work  of,  282. 

Psephinus,  see  Goliath,  castle  of. 

Ptah,  sanctuary  of,  655. 

Ptolemais,  see  Accho. 

Ptolemy,  statements  of,  736. 

Ptolemy  V.,  era  of,  629. 

Pul  or  Tiglath-Pileser,   1 1 1. 

Punt,  incense  country  of,  638. 

Pyramids  of  Egypt,  grouping  of,  653  ;  te,xts 
of,  3  3-34- 

()ain.^n,  Arabian  god,  735. 

Qal'at  Nunia,  castle  of  Nineveh,  11. 

Qal'at  Shirgat,  4;  excavations  at,  83-84;  Eng- 
lish excavations  at,  88  ;  visited  by  Layard, 
109. 

Qasr,  ruins  of,  54. 

^ataban,  kingdom  of,  711  ;  inscriptions  of, 
723,  728. 

Qorna,  4. 

^oyunjuk,  village  of,  4,  7,  1 1  ;  Botta's  re- 
searches at,  74  ;  English  excavations  at,  88  5 
Layard  at,  no  ;  southwest  palace  of,  117  ; 
sculptures  of,  described,  117-121;  Smith's 
researches  at,   194-195. 

guaresmio,  Francesco,  scholarship  and  work 
of,  583. 

guibell,  his  work  of  exploration,  642. 

(^umquma  =  Sachau,  30. 

Qurna,  site  of  sanctuary  of  Sethos,  682  j  ex- 
cavations at,  not  complete,  685. 


Rabb.an  HoRMUzn  monastery,  33. 

Rameses  II.,  discovery  of  temple  of,  638; 
restored  temple  of  Tanis,  645-646  ;  rebuilt 
Bast,  646  ;  Buto,  647  ;  era  of,  673,  762, 
768  ;  coffins  and  mummies  of,  686. 

Rameses  III.,  temple  of,  683  ;  times  of,  762, 
768. 

Rameses  XII.,  tomb  of,  688. 

Rameseum,  Quibell's  work  at,  642. 

Ramman,  Arabian  deity,  735. 

Rammanshumusur,  bricks  of,  332. 

Rammanu,  a  Babylonian  god,  735. 

Rassam,  Hormuzd,  researches  of,  83  ;  accom- 
panies Layard,  98,  1 14;  at  Nimrud,  130; 
at  Ooyunjuk,  131  ;  employed  by  British 
Museum,  201-202  ;  aims  of,  206  ;  dis- 
coveries of,  at  Balawat,  206-209  >  explo- 
rations of,  at  Babylon,  El-Birs,  and  Abu 
Habba,  260—279. 

RauwolfT,  Leonhart,  travels  of,  8  ;  three  tes- 
timonials of,   14. 

Rawlinson,  Sir  Henry,  corroborates  Grote- 
fend,  24  5  decipherer  and  linguist,  63  ; 
supervises  excavations,  70-71  ;  meets  Lav- 
ard,  97  ;  researches  at  Birs,  182-186  ;  light 
shed  by,   188. 

Re,  god,  statue  of,  649. 

Rehoboam,  supposed  fortifications  of,  608- 
609. 

Reinaud,  Arabian  tour  of,  701. 

"Religion,  Semitic,  History  of,"  733  ;  "  An- 
cient, History  of,"  733  ;  "  Handbook  of," 

733- 

Renan,  Ernest,  discoveries  of,  in  Sidon,  at  head 
of  French  expedition,  616-618. 

Rennell,  opponent  of  Rich,  32. 

Renouard  discovers  figure  of  Sesostris,   755. 

Resurrection  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  3. 

Revival  of  interest  in  Assyrian  excavations, 
187. 

Rich,  Claudius  James,  his  exploration  of 
Babylonian  and  Assyrian  ruins,  26  ;  his 
"Memoirs  on  the  Ruins  of  Babylon," 
27-28  ;  examination  of  Birs,  30-31  ;  ex- 
ploring tour,  32  ;  use  of  the  keick  (raft), 
34;  Oriental  antiquities,  35  ;  map  of  Tigris, 

.35- 

Riebeck,  visits  Isle  of  Incense,  716. 

Rim-Sin,  dynasty  and  tablets  of,  343. 

Ritter,  geographical  work  of,  699. 

Riyam,  Arabian  tutelary  deity,  735. 

Robinson,  Edward,  spirit  of,  awakened  anew, 
290;  his  "Biblical  Researches,"  585; 
archjeological  methods,  586-587;  the 
Smith-Robinson  travels,  587-588. 

Rock  pit,  graves  of  kings  and  wonderful  dis- 
coveries in,  685-686. 

Rodiger,  E.,  essays  of,  731-732. 

Rogers's  "  History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,' 
14  n. 


806 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Rossllini's  expedition  to  Egypt,  630;  his 
archaeological  works,  630. 

"  Rosetta  Stone"  of  Assyriology,  71  ;  dis- 
covery of,  629  ;  its  inscriptions,  629  ;  in- 
terpretations of,  629. 

Ross,  Dr.,  tour  of,  54-57;  companion  of 
Lavaid,  93. 

Royal  library  of  Nineveh,  121. 

Saba,  in  Arabia,  697,  711  ;  inscriptions  of, 
729-730;   queen  of,  751. 

Sabean  philology,  history  of,  732. 

Sabeans,  742. 

Sachau  ^  Qumquma,  30. 

Sacy,  Sylvestre  de,  pioneer  in  cuneiform  re- 
search, 23  ;  seconds  Grotefend's  discoveries, 

If- 
Sadlier,  his  Arabian  travels  and  discoveries,  703. 
Saft     el-Henne,     modern    name     of    Gesem, 

vvhich  !ee,  650. 
Saida,   in   Sidon,  discovery  of  sarcophagus  at, 

615-616. 
Said  Pasha  gives  leave  to  excavate,  636. 
Sais,  excavations  at,  636  ;   extinction  of,  644. 
Salcah,  location  of,  596. 
Salmon  [Gr.  Ansalmanos),  location  of,  595. 
Samak,  see  Tylos. 
Sam'al  :^  Senjirli,  736. 
Samaria,    Hebrevs-    name    of   Roman    Sebaste 

(modern  Sebastiye),  586. 
Sammosata,  capital,  59. 
Sammuramat,  statue  of,  I  30. 
Samsat,  inscriptions  of,  757. 
Samsi,  queen  of  Aribi,  740. 
Samsi-Adad,  stele  of,  131. 
Samsu-iluna,  King,  tablets  of,  31 1  ;  inscription 

of,  48  I . 
Sanda,  Hittite  god,  782. 
Sandwith,  Dr.,  physician,   1 14. 
Saphir,  Jacob,   Arabian  journeys  of,   706. 
Saqqara,  excavations  at,  637  ;    pvramids  near, 

653-654;    rich   discoveries    in,    654;    in- 
scriptions, 655. 
Sarcophagus  of   Eshmunazar,    description   of, 

616  ;  of  Tabnith,  618;  of  Alexander,  618. 
Sardis,  road  from,  755  ;  inscriptions  of,  757. 
Sargon,    king   of  Assyria,  palace  of,  85,    87, 

III;  tiles  of,  106  ;  barrel  cylinders  of,  313, 

416;  royal  steles  of,  61 1;  wars  of,  740;  age 

of,  765,  771- 

Sargon  I.,  king  of  Agade,  age  of,  249,  333, 
390;  inscriptions  of,  517. 

Sart  =  Sardis. 

Sarzec,  De,  excavations  of,  216-260. 

Sassanian  seals,  23,  326  ;  burials,  422  ;  dyn- 
asty, 555. 

Saussaye,  de  la,  C,  his  "Handbook  of  the 
History  of  Religion,"   733. 

Sayce,  A.  H.,  Hittite  theory  of,  758;  discovers 
bilingual  inscription,  769-770. 


Sayings  of  our  Lord,  627. 

Schafer,  H.,  work  of,  in  Egypt,  643. 

Schephelah,  legion  of,  609. 

Schick,  Dr.,  his  work  in  Jerusalem,  598, 
605,  613. 

Schrader,  Eberhard,  father  of  German  Assyri- 
ology, 280. 

Schumacher,    liis     East-Jordan   surveys,    594- 

595; 

Schweinfurth,  Georg,  his  Arabian  excursion, 
716. 

Sebaste  (Sebastiye),  see  Samaria. 

Sebastiye,  586  ;   in  line  of  research,  589. 

Scbennytus,  extinction  of,  644. 

Seetzen,  his  Arabian  tour,  702. 

Sekenyen-Re,  coffin  and  mummv  of,  686. 

Selby,  William  Beaumont,  explorations  and 
surveys  of,  66-69. 

Seleucia,  centre  ot  eastern  commerce,  12. 

Seleucidan  rulers,  period  of,  503. 

Semitic  names  and  people  of  Palestine,  586. 

Semitic  religion,  contributions  to,  733. 

Senjirli,  Hittite  district  visited,  301  ;  inscrip- 
tions of,  735,  765. 

Senkere,  location   of,  55  ;   mounds   of,    152- 

»S5- 

Sennacherib,  king  of  Assyria,  8  ;  palaces  of, 
III-II2;  lion-head  of,  276;  palace  of, 
771. 

Sepulchre,  Holy,  see  Church  of. 

Serapeum,  discovery  ot,  634. 

Serbal,  the  probable  Mt.  Sinai,  634. 

Sesostris,  figures  of,  755  ;   date  of,  762. 

Sethos,  sanctuary  of,  682  ;  coffin  and  mummy 
of,  686. 

Seti  I.,  discovery  of  temple  of,  at  Abydos,  637. 

Shalmaneser  II.,  King,  title  of,  33  ;  obelisk 
of,  106;  inscription  of,  no;  palace  of, 
III  ;  private  building  of,  194;  his  bronze 
gates,  265  ;   black  obelisk  of,  763-764. 

Shamash,  city  of,  154;  image  of,  270; 
temple  of,  272  ;  tomb  of,  468  ;  Babylon- 
ian sun-god,  734. 

Shamiye,  "great  river,"  55. 

Shammar,  Arabian  mountain  group,  695. 

Shapira,  his  Arabian  travels,  715. 

Shargani-shar-ali,  brick  stamp  of    333. 

Sharon,  plain  of,  616,  618. 

Shatt  el-Adhem,  river,  64. 

Shatt  el-Kar,  crossed  by  Eraser,  55. 

Shatt  en-Nil,  canal  of,  l6o  ;  location  of,  307. 

Sheba,  see  Saba. 

Shechem,  Hebrew  name  of  Roman  Neapolis 
(modern  Nablus),  586. 

Shedet,  ancient  capital  of  Fay ilm,  665,  671. 

Sherif  Khan,  excavations  at,  126. 

Shibin  el-Qanatir,  citv  of  high  priest  Onias, 
651. 

Shirley,  Sir  Anthony,  locates  Nineveh  and 
Mosul,  8. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


807 


Sidon,  discoveries  in,  615-616. 

Siloam,  conduit  of,  588  ;  pool  of,  6045  the 
inscription  of  conduit,  61  3—615. 

Simon,  L.,  liberality  of,  282. 

Sin,  Moon-god,  temple  of,  at  Muqayyar,  i  74; 
temple  of,  at  Haran,  273  ;  a  Babylonian 
deity,  734. 

Sinai,  in  line  of  research,  587;  Peninsula  of, 
visited  bv  Prussian  expedition,  634  ;  Mount 
of,  identified  with  Serbal,  634. 

Singashid,  monarch,   146. 

Sinjir,  expedition  to,  116. 

Sippara,  identification  of,  265. 

Sirwah,  inscriptions  ot,  722. 

Skythopolis,  see  Bethshean. 

Smith,  Eli,  his  work  in  Palestine,  586-587  5 
the  Smith-Robinson  travels,  587-588. 

Smith,  George,  engraver,  189  ;  study  of  As- 
syrian monuments,  1 90  ;  discovery  of  ac- 
count of  Deluge,  1 9 1  ;  examines  ruins  of 
Nimrud  and  (^al'at  Shirgat,  192;  theories, 
193  5  researches  at  ^oyunjuk,  194-195  5 
discoveries  enumerated,  19S  ;  death  at 
Aleppo,  200. 

Smyrna,   figures  and  inscriptions  near  the  road 

to,  75  5,  757- 

Snofru,  predecessor  of  King  Cheops,  663. 

Soane  discovers  colossal  statue  of  Rameses  II., 
665. 

Society  of  Biblical  Literature  and  Exegesis  a 
pioneer  in  Assyriology,  290. 

Socotra,  island  ot,  visited,  716. 

Sodom,  overthrow  ot,  4. 

Sokaris  Osiris,  sanctuary  of,  636. 

Solomon,  Temple  of,  location  of,  598,  see 
*Omar,  Mosque  of;   palace  of,  600-601. 

Soudan  visited  by  Prussian  expedition,  634. 

Sphinxes,  avenue  of,  discovered  by  Mariette, 
635. 

Spiegelberg,  work  of,  near  Thebes,  643. 

Sterret,  Dr.  J.  R.  S.,  accompanies  Wolfe 
expedition  to  Babylonia,  290. 

Strabo,  mentions  "  Hanging  Gardens,"  19; 
mentions  "the  sepulchre  ot  B.l,"  459; 
travels  in  Nile  valley,  635. 

Stiibel,  Dr.,  geological  researches  of,  595. 

Sumeria,  inscriptions  of,  738. 

Sumerian  question,  281. 

Surghul,  German  excavations  at,  280  ;  mound 
of,  282  ;  discoveries  at,  282-288  ;  ceme- 
tery of,  536. 

Survey  of  Palestine,  geographical,  591-596. 

Syennesis,  Cilician  king,  781. 

Sylvestre  de  Sacy  interprets  Rosetta  stone  in- 
scriptions, 629. 

Syria,  inscriptions  in,  755—756. 

Tablet  Hill,  311,  442,  509. 
Tablets  of  Tell    el-'Amarna,    description    of, 
620. 


Tabnit,   mention    of,    616;    sarcophagus    of, 

618. 
Tahpanhes   not    identified  with    Tell    Defne, 

648. 
Taima,  inscriptions  of,  727. 
Tanis,  ancient  temple  of,  637  ;  sanctuaries  of, 

644  ;   condition-  of,  644  ;   the  Bible  Zoan, 

644  ;    Petries  discoveries  at,  645. 
Tarkondemos,     King,     758  ;     character    of, 

765  ;   date  of,  765  ;  =  Tarqudimme,  782. 
Tarqudimme,  782. 
Tarz,  782. 

Taurus,  inscriptions  near,  780. 
Tavernier  describes  Nineveh  ruins,  10. 
Taxeira,  reference  ot,  to  Babylon,  16. 
Taylor,   J.  E.,    excavations  of,  at   Muqayyar, 

171-178. 
Tell  Basta,  same  as  Bubastis  and  Basta,  646. 
Tell  Defne,  site  and  remains  of,  647. 
Tell  ej-Judaida,  excavations  at,  609—610. 
Tell  el-'Amarna,     tablets    of,    620  ;     famous 

ruins  at,  641. 
Tell  el-Hesy,  mound  and  excavations  of,  607- 

608,  621. 
Tell  el-Lahm,  Taylor's  excavations  at,  178. 
Tell  el-Maskhuta,  location  of,  and  discoveries 

at,  648-649  . 
Tell  el-Yehudiya,  near  probable  site  of  temple 

of  high  priest  Onias,  651. 
Tell  es-Safi,  excavations  at,  609. 
Tell  Et-tuba,  "  Mound  of  Repentance, "  11. 
Tell  Ibrahim,  enormous  ruins  of,  277. 
Tell  Jokha,  location  of,  55. 
Tell-Lakariya,  excavations  at,  609. 
Tell  Manjur,  on  Tigris,  65. 
Tell  Medina,  excavations  ot,   156. 
Tell   Nebeshe,    sanctuaries   and    cemetery   of, 

647. 
Tello,   excavations  at,   by   De    Sarzec,    2 1 6- 

223;   ruins   of,    described,    219-220;    tur- 

ther   discoveries   at,    232-236,     279  ;     in- 
scriptions from,  450. 
Tell  'Omran  ibn  Ali,  mound  of,  30,  159. 
Tell  Sandahanna,  excavations  at,  609—610. 
Tell  Sifr,  excavations  of,   156. 
Temple  of  the   Seven   Directions   of  Heaven 

and  Earth,  184. 
Terah,  familv  worship  of,  746. 
Testament,  Old,  light  upon,  through   Arabic 

and  Babylon-Assyrian  inscriptions,  741. 
Texier,  finds  figures  of  gods  and  inscriptions, 

756.    _ 
Thebes,  its  monuments  examined,  638,  641  ; 

excavations  at,  and  results,  682,  690. 
Thomas,  Felix,  architect,  163. 
Thothmes  I.,   II.,   III.,   coffins  and    mum- 
mies of,  686,  689. 
Thureau-Dangin,  studies  of,  257-258. 
Tiberias,  in  line  of  research,  587;   Lake  of, 

597- 


808 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Tiberius,  coin  of,  507. 

Tide,  C.  P.,  his  "  History  or  Ancient  Reli- 
gion," 732. 

Tiglatli-Pileser  III.,  ill  ;  inscribed  slab  of, 
194;  inscriptions,  73'',  740;  seal  inscrip- 
tions, 771. 

Tigris,  river,  banks  of,  9  ;  Mosul,  near  by, 
1 1. 

Tigris,  steamer,  loss  ot,  60. 

Tobler,  Titus,  father  of  German  Palestinian 
research,  585  ;  his  researches  in  Palestine, 
588-590,  603. 

Tombs  of  Surghul  and  El-Hibba,  283—288. 

Tonietti,  Joseph,  surveys  at  Birs,   182. 

Topography  of  Palestine,  585-592. 

Torrey,  Professor,  and  American  Institute  of 
Archaeology  622. 

Tower  of  Babel,  described  by  Benjamin  of 
Tudela,  13. 

Tower  of  Belus,  ruin  ot,  42. 

Tower  of  Nimrod,  Bellino's  observations,  37. 

Trumbull,  Dr.  H.  Clay,  interest  of,  in  As- 
syriology,  301. 

Tiikh,  cemeteries  of,  680. 

Tukulti-iMer,  king  of  Khana,  276. 

Turco-Persian  Frontier  Commission,   139. 

Turkish  Archaeological  Museum,  569. 

Turkish  gleanings  at  Al  ij  Habba,  568—577. 

Tvchsen,  pioneer  in  cuneiform  research,  23. 

Tylos,  modern  Samak,  738. 

Tyropceon,  valley  of,  599-600,  603—604. 

U.MM  el-Ga'ab,  mounds  near  Abvdos,  678  ; 
description  of  remains  found,  678-679. 

Umm  Lakis,  supposably  Lachish,  which  see. 

University  of  Pennsylvania,  excavations  under 
auspices  of,  289,  293,  294,  347  ;  lectures 
in,  on  archaeology,  293  ;  expedition  under 
auspices  of,  294. 

Ur-Bau,  Assyrian  monarch,  231  5  clay  ob- 
jects of,  279. 

Ur-Gur,  King,  146;  temple  builder,  154; 
king,  temple  of,  I  74  ;  original  construction 
of,  332;  crude  palace  of,  333;  king  of 
Ur,  378  ;  pavement  of,  387-389  ;  rampart, 
498. 

Ur-Nina,  King,  240-241. 

Ur-Ninib,  pavement  of,  378. 

I'r  of  Chaldees  =  .Muqayyar,  l  7  ;  dynasty  and 
tablets  of,  343  ;  kings  of,  380,  739  ;  lo- 
cation of,  743  ;   worship  in,  745. 

Uruk  or  Erech,   146. 

Urumush  (  Alusharshid  ),  king  of  Kish,  276, 

333- 
Us=  Uz  of  O.  T.,  748. 
Lsaphais,  king  of  Abvdos,  6S0. 
L'sertesen  I.,  tomb  of,  discovered,  642. 
L'sertesen  II.,  residence,  671  ;  tomb,  671. 
Usertesen  III.,  burial  place  of,  659. 
Uyiik,  inscriptions  of,  757 


"Valley  of  the  Kings,"  near  Thebes,  dis- 
coveries in,  640. 

V^an  den  Berg,  Arabic  work  of,  721. 

Vyse,  Howard,  his  explorations  at  Memphis, 
9  ;  theory  of  pyramids,  653. 

Wadp,  Minean  moon-god,  733,  749. 

Wadi  Berisa,  cuneiform  inscriptions  of,  301. 

Wadi  ed-Dawasir,  in  Arabia,  695. 

Wadi  er-Rumma,  in  Arabia,  695,  714. 

Wadi  Hamdh,  of  Arabia,  696,  713. 

Wadi  KhJrid,  of  Arabia,  696. 

Wadi  Magara,  copper  mines  and  inscriptions 
of,  634. 

Wadi  Sirhan  of  Arabia,  696. 

Wadi  Tumilat,  valley  of,  648. 

Wahhabites,  kingdom  of,  701. 

Wallin,  Georg,  traverses  North  Arabia,  705. 

Wan,  cuneiform  inscriptions  of,   116. 

Ward,  Hayes,  his  decipherment  of  inscrip- 
tions, 772. 

Ward,  Dr.  W.  H.,  director  of  first  American 
Fund  Committee,  290  ;  heads  Wolfe  expe- 
dition to  Babylonia,  290  ;  report  of  Wolfe 
expedition,  29  ;  recommendations  of,  as  to 
site  of  excavations,  297. 

Warka,  passed  by  Fraser,  55  ;  excavations  at, 
141-155;   ruins  described,  144-155. 

Warren,  excavations  of,  599  ;  his  find  of  the 
wall  at  Jerusalem,  603. 

Weidenbach,  Karl  and  Ernst,  accompany 
German  expedition  to  Egypt,  632. 

"  Well  of  Job,"  location  of,   591. 

Wellsted,  Captain  T.  R.,  his  "Travels  in 
Arabia,"  703. 

Wetzstein,  publications  of,  709. 

Wilhelm  IV.,  patronage  of,  57;  sends  expedi- 
tion to  Egypt,  631  ;  its  explorations;  rich 
results  of,  632. 

Williams,  Colonel,  "  Hero  of  Kars, "   139. 

Wilson,  Captain,  his  expedition  to  Holy  Land, 
591  ;    results  of,   592. 

Winckler,  Hugo,  works  of,  732. 

Wolfe,  Catharine  LoriDard,  contribution  of, 
to  American  expedition,  290  ;  expedition 
of,  to  Babylonia,  how  composed,  290  ; 
work  of,  291  ;    report  of,  291. 

Wrede,  Adolf  von,  his  diary  of  Arabian 
travels,  704. 

Wright,  Dr.  W.,  secures  all  Hamath  inscrip- 
tions, 756  ;    Hittite  theory  of,  758. 

Wiistenfeld,  dictionary  of,  736. 

Wuswas,  ruins  of,   146—149. 

Xenophon,  march  of,  7  ;  Median  Wall  of, 
64. 

Ya,  a  Babylonian  deity,  734,  747. 
Vadi'a-ab,  mountains  of,  740. 
Vati'a,  spice  region  of  Arabia,  694. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


809 


Yahve,  significance  of,  746. 
Yaqut's  dictionary,  699,  736. 
Yarmuk,  boundary  stream,   596. 
Yemama  described,  708. 
Yemen,  Arabian  Alpine  region,  694. 
Yezidis,    their   villages,  33;    "  Devil  worship- 
pers," 102. 

Zab,  Upper,  region  ot,  7,  65. 
Zamama,  temple  of,  49. 
Zaqaziq,  location  of,  646. 


Zarpanit,  Arabian  goddess,   738. 

Zehme,  Albrecht,  works  of,  on  Arabia,  699, 

712. 
Zend-Avesta,  language  of,  23. 
Zerah,  Arab  shaikh,   742. 
Ziggurrat,  368,   553  ;   excavations  at,  452. 
Zibn,  location  of,  599-600. 
Zipporah,  an  Arab  woman,  742. 
Zoan,  see  Tanis,  644. 
Zoser,  pyramid  of,  at  Saqqara,  662,  676. 
Zubibi,  tribute  from,  740. 


INDEX    TO   SCRIPTURE    QUOTATIONS. 


Genesis  i:6-8;  1:9-10  ....  463 

a:i4 743 

4:16 356 

10 191,  7C0,  781 

10:9 401 

io:io   .  146,  254,  265,  294,  411 

lo:ll 109 

10:26 742 

10:27 743 

10:30 702 

II 185 

11:2 254 

11:3 -5^ 

11:4 464 

11:5.  8 554 

11:28 174 

14 532 

14:1 154 

15:7 174 

20: 1,  12 742 

22:20 742 

^5:13-15 741 

Exodus  i  and  2 749 

2:21 742 

3:1 746 

19:9 742 

38:8 749 

Leviticus  7:11 750 

Numbers  I2:i 742 

^4:24 743 

Deuteronomy  26:5 744 

JosHu.A  15:7 599 

15:44 611 

24:2 745 

Judges  i 620 

i:io  728 

1  Samuel  2:22  749 

2  Samuel  3:3  ....  728 

5:6 601 

1  Kings     1:33 604 

7 750 

•  7:2 617 

19:16 106 

2  Kings     3 612 

9:10 106 

•7:24 265 

19:37 105 


2  Kings   25:27      . 

.     .   310 

2  Chronicles  11:9     . 

608,  609 

14  .      . 

■     •   742 

Ezra  8:14  . 

.     .  468 

JcB     5:5      ...      . 

743.  748 

6:19   .... 

•      •   748 

29:18   .... 

•      ■    748 

31:26    .      .      . 

.     ■    748 

Psalms  68:14-15 

•      •  595 

68:31        .      . 

•      ■   743 

Isaiah     8:6 

.      .   614 

ii:ii    .      . 

•     •    742 

13:19    .      . 

•      •        4 

13:21    .      . 

■      •     47 

14:12    .      . 

•      .       4 

18:1      .      . 

•      •    742 

20:l      . 

87,  198 

21    .      .      . 

.      .    742 

2i:i 

•     •       5 

37:9      -      • 

■     •   742 

45:14    .      . 

74^,  743 

Jeremiah  26:10    . 

.      .   601 

34:7      - 

608-609 

46:9      . 

•      •    742 

50:38     . 

•      •       4 

50:40    . 

.      .      .       4 

51:42    . 

.      .      .        5 

52:31     . 

.    310 

EZEKIEL         l:l,   3;    3:1 

Si 

c: 

5 

411-412 

19:15          . 

•      •      -750 

27          •         ■ 

•      ■      -742 

37      •      ■ 

■      •      -437 

46:23       . 

•      ■      ■    750 

Daniel     i  :4-5      . 

.      .      .    526 

5        •     • 

•      •      •    175 

10:4    .     . 

■      .      -743 

Hosea     5:11    .     . 

•     •     -735 

5:13   .      . 

•   740 

10:6     . 

•      •      -74° 

Nahcm  2:6 

.      .      .        4 

2:10    . 

.      .      .       4 

3:9      .      . 

•      •      -742 

Zephaniah  2:14   . 

.      .      .       4 

John  19:17 

.   604 

2  Corinthians  5:16 

.      .      .582 

Hebrews  13:12    . 

.   604 

8050     75 


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